How do you convert 0.12011 into scientific form?

1 Answer
Jul 11, 2015

#0.12011 = 1.2011 xx 10^-1#

Explanation:

Choose the power of #10# to make the mantissa a number in the range #[1, 10)# (or #(-10, -1]# if it's negative).

Count the number of times you need to multiply or divide the original number by #10# to find the exponent of #10#. Multiplying or dividing by #10# boils down to shifting the number one digit to the left or right.

In our case we needed to multiply by #10# once to bring the mantissa into range, hence the #-1# exponent.