Example
65000000
is written as 6.5 x 10^7
- The structures in the universe vary greatly in scale.
- To understand the scale of these structures, imagine that you are going on a journey through the universe...
Scientific Notation
- Scientific notation uses powers of ten to write very large or very small numbers in shorter form.
- Each number is written as the product of a number between 1 and 10 and a power of 10.
Scale of the Universe
- Astronomers define the universe as all of space and everything in it.
- Since the numbers astronomers use are often very large or very small, they frequently use scientific notation to describe sizes and distances in the universe.
The Scale of the Universe