Convert a number to scientific notation, or expand scientific notation to a plain number. Enter either form.
Usage Tip
The exponent is the order of magnitude: 10^3 is thousands, 10^6 millions, 10^9 billions.
The mantissa is at least 1 and less than 10
It is standard in science and engineering for readability and precision.
The mantissa is normalized to between 1 and 10.
E-notation (1.5e+8) is the form most calculators display.
Scientific notation writes a number as a value between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of ten, which makes very large and very small numbers easier to read and compare. The speed of light, about 300,000,000 meters per second, becomes 3 times ten to the eighth, and 0.00045 becomes 4.5 times ten to the minus fourth.
Moving the decimal point to the left gives a positive exponent and moving it to the right gives a negative one. The digits in the first part show the significant figures, so 1.20 times ten to the third carries more precision than 1.2 times ten to the third. Calculators often display this as E notation, where 3E8 means 3 times ten to the eighth.