# How do you write 1,040 in scientific notation?

Aug 24, 2016

$\textcolor{b l u e}{1} , \textcolor{red}{040} = \textcolor{b l u e}{1} .04 \times {10}^{\textcolor{red}{3}}$

#### Explanation:

Scientific notation is a way of writing very big and very small numbers by referring to powers of 10.
$10 = 1 \times 10$
$100 = 1 \times {10}^{2}$
$1 , 000 = 1 \times {10}^{3}$
$10 , 000 = 1 \times {10}^{4}$ ... and so on

$250 \text{ is } 2 \frac{1}{2}$ hundreds, or $2.5 \times 100 = 2.5 \times {10}^{2}$

There should only be one digit before the decimal point ,

$\textcolor{b l u e}{1} , \textcolor{red}{040} = \textcolor{b l u e}{1} .04 \times {10}^{\textcolor{red}{3}}$

Look at the following examples:

$\textcolor{b l u e}{6} \textcolor{red}{93 , 000} = \textcolor{b l u e}{6} .93 \times {10}^{\textcolor{red}{5}}$

$\textcolor{b l u e}{2} \textcolor{red}{1 , 350 , 000} = 2.135 \times {10}^{\textcolor{red}{7}}$

Decimal fractions are shown with negative indices.

0.$\textcolor{red}{0003} 74 = 3.74 \times {10}^{\textcolor{red}{- 4}}$

0.$\textcolor{red}{000 , 000 , 3} 45 = 3.45 \times {10}^{-} 7$