Large Numbers - Using Scientific Notation To Handle Large and Small Numbers

Using Scientific Notation To Handle Large and Small Numbers

See also: scientific notation, logarithmic scale, and orders of magnitude

Scientific notation was created to handle the wide range of values which occur in scientific study. 1.0 × 109, for example, means one billion, a 1 followed by nine zeros: 1 000 000 000, and 1.0 × 10−9 means one billionth, or 0.000 000 001. Writing 109 instead of nine zeros saves readers the effort and hazard of counting a long series of zeros to see how large the number is.

Read more about this topic:  Large Numbers

Famous quotes containing the words scientific, handle, large, small and/or numbers:

    “It’s an old trick now, God knows, but it works every time. At the very moment women start to expand their place in the world, scientific studies deliver compelling reasons for them to stay home.”
    —Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)

    “One who can handle a pen will never have to beg.”
    —Chinese proverb.

    “AIDS occupies such a large part in our awareness because of what it has been taken to represent. It seems the very model of all the catastrophes privileged populations feel await them.”
    —Susan Sontag (b. 1933)

    “Better to cheat an old grey head than to trick a small child.”
    —Chinese proverb.

    “One murder makes a villain, millions a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow.”
    —Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977)