Scientific Notation Calculator

Quick start

1. Type a number such as 0.000045600 or 93000000, or E notation like 6.02e23.
2. Read the scientific, E and engineering forms and the plain number.
3. The steps tell you how many places the decimal moved, and in which direction.

The format

Scientific notation writes a number as a × 10ⁿ, where a is at least 1 and less than 10. The distance from the Earth to the Sun, about 150,000,000 km, becomes 1.5 × 10⁸ km. A human hair, about 0.00007 m wide, becomes 7 × 10⁻⁵ m.

Moving the decimal

Shift the decimal point until there is one non-zero digit in front of it. Moving it to the left makes the power positive; moving it to the right makes it negative. 93,000,000 → 9.3 needs 7 moves left, so it is 9.3 × 10⁷.

Calculating in this form

Multiply: multiply the front numbers and add the powers. (4 × 10³)(2.5 × 10⁴) = 10 × 10⁷ = 1 × 10⁸. Divide: divide the front numbers and subtract the powers. (9 × 10⁸) ÷ (3 × 10⁵) = 3 × 10³.

E and engineering notation

E notation is how calculators and spreadsheets show the same thing: 7e-5 means 7 × 10⁻⁵. Engineering notation only uses powers that are multiples of 3, matching prefixes like kilo, mega and micro: 0.0000456 = 45.6 × 10⁻⁶, or 45.6 micro.

Common questions