Scientific Notation

It is sometimes convenient to express large or small numbers in scientific notation.
For Example: 5,000 = 5 x 10³ and .0004 = 4 x 10^{- 4}.

Commonly used prefixes for powers of 10 used with metric units are given below in Table 1.1.

 

Power Prefix Abbreviation

10^{- 9} nano n

$$\mu$$ 10^{- 6} micro

10^{- 3} milli m

10^{- 2} centi c

10^{- 1} deci d

10³ kilo k

10⁶ mega M

For Example:
a) 60,000 m = 6 x 10⁴ m = 60 km
b) 0.003 s = 3 x 10^{- 3} s = 3 ms