Question

How do you write `2,750,389` in scientific notation?

Answer 1

`2.750389xx10^6`

Explanation:

Scientific notation is such that all numbers are represented by values between 1 and 9, multiplied by 10 to some exponent.

For instance, if we want to write 75 in scientific notation, it would be expressed as:

`7.5xx10^1`

The number is now between 1 and 9, and we can multiply it by 10 (`10^1=10`) to get the final number.

For the case in question, we have a relatively large multiplier to turn into an exponent.

First, we should re-write the number so it's a value from 1-9 multiplied by some base-10 value:

`2750389=2.750389xx1000000`

Next, we figure out what 1,000,000 is equivalent to as an exponent. A trick for this is to count the zeros, starting from the ones place and moving to the left (in the case of large numbers) or to the right (in the case of decimals).

1,000,000 has 6 zeroes, meaning that 1,000,000=`10^6`

Putting this all together:

`2750389=2.750389xx10^6`

Answer 2

`2.750389 times 10^6`

Explanation:

To write it in scientific notation we need to have a number with a decimal after the first digit

To get this, we divide the number by `2750389` by `1000000`

But since we cant just simply divide it, we also multiply to compensate

This becomes `(2750389*1000000)/1000000`

Note that its still the same number

This becomes `2.750389*1000000`

This becomes `2.750389 times 10^6`