Question

How do you convert 0.12011 into scientific form?

Answer 1

`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.