Scientific Notation Worksheets

What is Scientific Notation? Sometimes, when you work with a calculator, you can get long answers, these long numbers may be a long number like 453000000, or a very small yet long numbers like 0.000000432. one way to simplify these numbers is by using scientific notation. Scientific notation makes working with such numbers simpler when working with scientific notation. We make sure that the decimal place is move in a way that the we et a number between 1 and 10. Next, we write the power of ten to represent how many places the decimal was moved. Typically, scientific notation is written as:
a x 10b
in scientific notation, 'a' represent the co-efficient and 'b' represents the exponent. Here, the coefficient is an integer written to the left to the decimal point plus a mantissa. Mantissa is known as the significant digits present at the right of the decimal point. For example, we have to write 406,000 in scientific notation. Upon moving decimal place once to the left we will get, 406,00.0. we need to keep moving the decimal until we have a number between 1 and 10. To achieve this, we will have to move the decimal place to the left 5 times. We will have 4.06. multiplying 4.06 times 105. 406,000 in scientific notation will be 4.06 x 105.

  • Basic Lesson

    Introduces the concept of writing scientific notation in decimal form. Write the scientific notation in decimal form.

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  • Intermediate Lesson

    This lesson demonstrates how to determine leaps in scientific notation.

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  • Independent Practice 1

    Students practice with 20 scientific notation problems. The answers can be found below. Write the scientific notation in decimal form.

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  • Independent Practice 2

    Another 20 scientific notation problems. The answers can be found below.

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  • Homework Worksheet

    Reviews all skills in the unit. A great take home sheet. Also provides a practice problem.

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  • Skill Quiz

    10 problems that test scientific notation skills.

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  • Homework and Quiz Answer Key

    Answers for the homework and quiz.

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  • Answer Key

    Answers for the lesson and practice sheets.

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  • How to Write Numbers in Scientific Notation?

    There are two different ways of writing numbers that are too small or too big. These include standard form and scientific notation. The standard form is the traditional way of writing numbers, but an alternative to this is numbers written in scientific notations. It is a standard of writing numbers that are too small or too large. It eliminates the chances of errors. It makes writing numbers easy and simple. The general form of a number in scientific notation is;
    N × 10a
    Here, N is a number that lies between 1 and 10. The thing to note here is that the 10 is not to be included here. a here is an integer, meaning it can be both positive or negative. To write a number in scientific notation, you have to move the decimal to the write or left to create a number that lies between 1 and 10, excluding 10. When you move the decimal to the left, your exponent becomes equal to the number of places moved. When you move the decimal to the right, your exponent becomes equal to the negative of the number of a place moved. This is how you write numbers in exponent form!


  • Basic Lesson

    Introduces the concept of writing numbers in scientific notation.

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  • Intermediate Lesson

    This lesson demonstrates how to write numbers in scientific notation.

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  • Independent Practice 1

    Students practice with 20 writing numbers in scientific notation. The answers can be found below.

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  • Independent Practice 2

    Another 20 writing numbers in scientific notation problems. The answers can be found below.

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  • Homework Worksheet

    Reviews all skills in the unit. A great take home sheet. Also provides a practice problem.

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  • Skill Quiz

    10 problems that test writing numbers in scientific notation skills.

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  • Homework and Quiz Answer Key

    Answers for the homework and quiz.

    View worksheet
  • Answer Key

    Answers for the lesson and practice sheets.

    View worksheet

Why is Scientific Notation Important?

The majority of the students around the world believe that mathematics is challenging and tough. Just the name of this subject scares them away. As much as students find it tough, there are strategies and techniques that the experts have devised to make things easier for the world. One of the many helpful strategies in use today includes writing numbers in scientific notation. So, what is scientific notation, how it helps us, and why is it so important? Well, how many times do you have to deal with numbers that are too large such as 320030304304934848948366436285686873086 or too small, such as 0.000000000000000000000000000322646228. What we can do with scientific notation is that we can simplify it and eliminate the chances of errors. To write a number in a scientific notation, you have to move the position of the decimal point. When the decimal point moves towards the left, it creates a positive exponent and when it is moved towards the right it creates a negative exponent. The reason why scientific notation is important is that it makes unusually large mathematical calculations simple, easy, and straightforward while minimizing the chances of errors.

Too Big!

Working with extra large number is hard! That's why scientists developed a shorter method to express very large numbers. It is called scientific notation. And is based on powers of the base number 10. For instance, the number 123,000,000,000 in scientific notation is written as : 1.23 x 1011.