February 23: Scientific Notation

Today we started the final segment in this unit: Scientific Notation.  Scientific Notation is another way to represent REALLY BIG or really small numbers, like the numbers that are typically seen in science.

For example, the distance from Earth to the Sun is 

92,960,000 miles.

In Scientific Notation, this number is written as    9.296 x 10⁷

Scientific Notation gives us a way to compare magnitude of very large or very small numbers.  We found that it was easier to understand Scientific Notation when we actually did a few examples.  The more we tried to explain the concept, the more confusing it got! So here are the notes we took in class- we did several examples going both from Standard Form to Scientific Notation, and then Scientific Notation to Standard Form.  

Click here to download today's homework.