scientific notation

noun

1. a method for expressing a given quantity as a number having significant digits necessary for a specified degree of accuracy, multiplied by 10 to the appropriate power, as 1385.62 written as 1.386 × 10 3 .

scientific notation

1. A method of expressing numbers in terms of a decimal number between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10. The scientific notation for 10,492, for example, is 1.0492 × 10 ⁴.

Word History and Origins

Origin of scientific notation¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

“Atto” is the scientific notation prefix that represents 10-18, which is a decimal point followed by 17 zeroes and a 1.

From Salon

You could also write that in scientific notation as 3x10³⁵, but sometimes it’s nice to write out all the digits as a reminder of how mind-bogglingly large these numbers are.

From New York Times

Do they understand scientific notation?

From Washington Times

The radius of the earth is about 3,963 miles, so we will need to get really comfortable with scientific notation to start expressing everyday measurements in terms of Radii.

From Scientific American

The language of mathematics, grounded in scientific notation, logarithms and orders of magnitude, allows us to grapple with the cosmos where words fall short, explains Burrows.

From Scientific American