Aim: Why do we use Scientific notation in Science?

Do Now:

- In your notebooks, explain why scientists use scientific notation to represent numbers they calculate rather then writing out the entire number.

Scientific notation is used to write numbers in a short-hand form. This technique makes really large or really small numbers easier to read and write.

Ex:

9,600,000 = 9.6 x 10 6

.00049 = 4.9 x 10 -4

Rules for writing in Scientific NotationStep 1 Position the decimal point to get a number between 1 and 10

Step 2 Count the number of places the decimal point was moved to get the number between 1 and 10. Where did it start originally?

Step 3 Write the number as a product between 1 and 10 to a power of 10 using the number of spaces the decimal moved as your exponent.

9 600 000 = • • 9.6 x 10 6

Closure:

- Take a “Writing numbers in Scientific Notation” worksheet from the back.

Working with the person sitting next to you, work on the practice problems on the front of the worksheet.

10) 6.57x101 11) 5.45x10-3 12)2.245x107

13) 8.03x10-2 14) 6.783x102 15) 3.47x106

16) 1.2x103 17) 5.7x104 18) 3.798

19) 88500 20) 184.7 21) .003400

22) .065 23) 970 24) .14

25) 439500 26) 113 27) 224000

1) 4.6x10-2 2) 4.605X106 3) 3.3X104

4) 9.632X103 5) 8.0X10-3 6) 3.0X10-2

7) 1.458X106 8)1.4X10-2 9) 5.7X103