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Exponential notation with significant figures.
"Scientific notation"
- is exponential notation,
- but leaves the decimal in a standard place
(After the first non-zero digit (ie, one can have 1. or 2. or 3. or 9. , but never 12. or 0.1))
- and then uses zeros to indicate significant figures.
The less restrictive exponential notation is more common
on the back of the envelope.
Links
An Exponential Notation Meta Page (and scientific notation too)
IEER's
Scientific Notation and practice
sheet.
Jim Wilson's
Scientific Notation
Scientific Notation
and Significant Figures
Powers of Ten, Prefixes, Basic Calculator Usage.
Notes...
Caveat, caveat. Actually, the phrase "scientific notation" is rarely
heard outside of the classroom. "Exponential notation" seems to be
used to name both versions (both free-form and cannonicalized), with
only context indicating which is intended. If only to make teaching
simpler, I leave "scientific notation" its narrow meaning, and use
"exponential notation" as a strictly more general catagory.
There is probably an SI standard somewhere online which says what the
"right thing" is...
Perhaps move links to exp note page?
Notes:
Doables:
History:
2003-Feb-03 Fixed 3 links. Added this History.
mid 1990's Created.