Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Small Numbers as Powers of 10
- What’s Next?
In the previous segment, we saw how to write large numbers using powers of 10. In this segment, we will write very small numbers using powers of 10.
How to write small numbers using the powers of 10?
Let us understand how to express small numbers using the powers of 10 with the help of the following example:
Q. Express 0.00035 as a power of 10. Solution:
Step 1: Split the number
Convert the decimal into fractional form and then split the number. 0.00035 = 35
100000
= 35 × 1
100000
Step 2: Count the number of zeros
Count the number of zeros in 100000. Here, there are five zeros.
Step 3: Write in exponential form
The decimal fraction will be written as 0.00035 = 35 × 1
105
Step 4: Convert from fractional form to exponential form
So, 0.00035 = 35 × 1
105
= 35 × 10−5
Step 5: Convert to standard form
As per the standard form, the number before the decimal point should be between 1.0 and 10.0.
Here, 35 = 3.5 \times 10
So, 0.00035 =3.5 × 10 × 10−5
∴ 0.00035 = 3.5 × 10−4