How do you write a number in scientific notation?+
Move the decimal point until you have a coefficient between 1 and 10. The number of places you moved the decimal becomes the exponent. Moving left = positive exponent (large number). Moving right = negative exponent (small number). Example: 45,000 = 4.5 × 10⁴ (moved decimal 4 places left). Example: 0.0032 = 3.2 × 10⁻³ (moved decimal 3 places right).
What is E notation?+
E notation (or engineering notation) writes the exponent after the letter E: 4.5E4 means 4.5 × 10⁴ = 45,000. It's used in calculators and programming languages because superscripts are hard to type. 3.2E-3 means 3.2 × 10⁻³ = 0.0032. Our calculator accepts both formats as input.