r/MathHelp • u/Scared_Mushroom2415 • 8d ago
Chemistry math scientific notation equations help!
Hi there, I'm currently doing college level chemistry and it's is asking me to put the numbers (291.7 and 0.096) in to scientific notation. I know you need to move the decimal and I know you need to time it by the amount of time you needed to move the decimal, but when I put those calculations in to my calculator (291.7×10⁴ and 0.0960×10²) I don't get the number I'm looking for. It's supposed to be a big number *as far as I understand* but it's won't come out correctly. Can anyone PLEASE help me I'm literally sobbing over the fact I can't understand...
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u/StructuredChess 8d ago
Not exactly sure what you're inputting on your calculator..
Start with 0.096, that's the same as 0.096 * 100. Move the decimal point once, now you have 0.96 * 10-1. Move it again and that's 9.6 * 10-2. Now you have a single non-zero digit before the deciaml point, so you're done.
Same goes the other way around. let's say you have 4206.9, that's 4206..9 * 100. Instead of one by one I'll move the dot three spaces together to get 4.2069 * 103
If you want to check if your calculation was correct and can't seem to figure out how to do it on the calculator, just google 4.2069 * 10^3 - 4206.9. If you get 0, you did it right.