scientific notation

American  

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 .

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scientific notation Scientific  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of scientific notation

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 • Oct. 10, 2023

Use scientific notation to determine how many adults believe aliens have visited Earth.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

In scientific notation, this would become 2.36 × 108.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

Note that any number, no matter how large or how small, can be expressed in scientific notation.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

For very big or very small numbers, so-called scientific notation is often clearer and easier to work with than standard notation and I’ll therefore sometimes use it.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos