Scientific Notation Converter

Scientific notation is a way of writing very large or very small numbers compactly — and it is the standard language of science, engineering, and computing. Once you understand the structure, converting back and forth becomes second nature.

Standard form: N = a × 10ⁿ

Where a (the coefficient) satisfies 1 ≤ |a| < 10, and n (the exponent) is any integer.

Converting a large number to scientific notation: Move the decimal point left until you have a number between 1 and 10. Count the moves — that count is your positive exponent.

Example: 4,500,000 → 4.5 × 10⁶

Converting a small number to scientific notation: Move the decimal point right until you have a number between 1 and 10. That count is your negative exponent.

Example: 0.000072 → 7.2 × 10⁻⁵

Multiplying in scientific notation: (a × 10ⁿ) × (b × 10ᵐ) = (a × b) × 10^(n+m)

Example: (3.0 × 10⁴) × (2.0 × 10³) = 6.0 × 10⁷

Dividing in scientific notation: (a × 10ⁿ) ÷ (b × 10ᵐ) = (a ÷ b) × 10^(n−m)

Worked example: The distance from Earth to the Sun is 149,600,000 km. In scientific notation: 1.496 × 10⁸ km

An electron has a mass of 0.000000000000000000000000000000911 kg. In scientific notation: 9.11 × 10⁻³¹ kg

Reference exponents:

• 10³ = thousand | 10⁶ = million | 10⁹ = billion | 10¹² = trillion
• 10⁻³ = milli | 10⁻⁶ = micro | 10⁻⁹ = nano | 10⁻¹² = pico