Scientific Notation Converter
Convert numbers between standard, scientific, and engineering notation.
Enter in standard form, scientific notation (3.2e8), or with exponents
How It Works
Parses the input number (handling standard, scientific, and engineering formats), then converts to all three representations. Determines the exponent by counting decimal place shifts needed to get a coefficient between 1 and 10 (scientific) or adjusts to the nearest multiple of 3 (engineering).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is scientific notation?
Scientific notation expresses numbers as a coefficient (1-9.99) multiplied by a power of 10. For example: 300,000 = 3 x 10^5 and 0.00045 = 4.5 x 10^-4. It makes very large or very small numbers easier to read and compare.
What is engineering notation?
Engineering notation is similar to scientific notation but the exponent is always a multiple of 3 (corresponding to SI prefixes like kilo, mega, giga, milli, micro, nano). For example: 45,000 = 45 x 10^3.
How do I type scientific notation?
Most calculators and programming languages use 'e' notation: 3.2e8 means 3.2 x 10^8. Negative exponents use e-: 4.5e-4 means 4.5 x 10^-4.
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