Sometimes numbers in scientific notation are written as a number that
contains ______ or ______ instead of a first factor times a power of 10.

➔ This stands for “times ten to the power of”.
➔ The number after the E is the power ________________ or .

Example: The number 7.3477E22 means 7.3477 × 1022 .
Note: The calculator tool in this course uses a “+” symbol after the E and
before the power of 10. An example is shown at the right.
Small Numbers
The same method we used to convert large numbers to scientific notation can be used with extremely small numbers. We still count the number of places the decimal point was moved. But because the number is less than 1, the power is (positive or negative?).

Example: Let’s look at this small number: 0.00000000256. To write the first factor, we shift the decimal point to the right of the first ________________ digit in the number. Here, it will be after the ________ .
For this number, the decimal point moved places to the right. The number 0.00000000256 is less
than 1, so the power of 10 will be (positive or negative?).

What power? ___


Let’s convert a small number to standard notation from scientific notation.
Look at the number 1.83 × 10−4 . The power is (positive or negative?), so we shift the decimal point to the (left or right?) 4 places.
So, 1.83 × 10−4 written in standard notation is ______________________.
We can also use the E function for very small numbers using scientific notation.
➔ For small numbers less than _______, the exponent is (positive or negative?).
➔ So, the number after the E is also (positive or negative?).
Example: The number 2.29E-3 means 2.29 × 10−3 .