# How do you write 100,000,000,000 in scientific notation?

Jan 18, 2016

$1 \cdot {10}^{11}$

#### Explanation:

Scientific notation is used to transform big or small numbers to decimal form. Numbers are written in this form:

$m \cdot {10}^{n}$

where m is a real number and n is an integer

To write the scientific notation of a number, you have to move the decimal point to a specific significant figure then count how many places did you move the decimal point until it reached the first significant number. This then becomes the exponent, n.

Moving the decimal point from right to left would result to a positive exponent. Moving the decimal from left to right on the other hand would result to a negative exponent

For this example,

$100 , 000 , 000 , 000 = 100 , 000 , 000 , 000.$

move the decimal ($.$) to the left until all zeros are placed after the decimal.

Now, counting the places where the decimal point has moved
$100 , 000 , 000 , 00.0 \to 1$
$100 , 000 , 000 , 0.00 \to 2$
$100 , 000 , 000.000 \to 3$ .... $1.00000000000 \to 11$

using this information we can conclude that,

$100 , 000 , 000 , 000 = 1 \cdot {10}^{11}$