1Cademy - Converting $$37{,}000$$ and $$0.0052$$ to Scientific Notation

Learn Before

Procedure for Converting from Decimal Notation to Scientific Notation

Example

Converting 37{,}000 and 0.0052 to Scientific Notation

To convert a number to scientific notation, apply the four-step procedure of moving the decimal point, counting the places moved, writing the product with a power of $10$ , and checking the result.

Example 1: 37{,}000

Move the decimal point: Shift the implied decimal point in 37{,}000 to the left to get 3.7, which is between $1$ and $10$ .
Count the places moved: The decimal point traveled $4$ places to the left.
Write as a product: Because 37{,}000 is greater than $1$ , the exponent is positive $4$ , giving $3.7 imes 10^4$ .
Check: $3.7 imes 10{,}000 = 37{,}000$ . Therefore, $37{,}000 = 3.7 imes 10^4$ .

Example 2: 0.0052

Move the decimal point: Shift the decimal point in 0.0052 to the right to get 5.2.
Count the places moved: The decimal point traveled $3$ places to the right.
Write as a product: Because 0.0052 is between $0$ and $1$ , the exponent is negative $-3$ , giving $5.2 imes 10^{-3}$ .
Check: $5.2 imes 0.001 = 0.0052$ . Therefore, $0.0052 = 5.2 imes 10^{-3}$ .

Try It Exercises:

Convert 96{,}000 to scientific notation: $9.6 imes 10^4$
Convert 0.0078 to scientific notation: $7.8 imes 10^{-3}$
Convert 48{,}300 to scientific notation: $4.83 imes 10^4$
Convert 0.0129 to scientific notation: $1.29 imes 10^{-2}$

Updated 2026-05-13

Contributors are:

Who are from:

References

Learn Before

Related

Learn After