Scientific notation converter
Math & numbersHow do you write this number in scientific notation?
Write a number in scientific and engineering notation with the significant figures you choose, or turn 6.022e23 back into digits.
What you enter stays on your device while you use this tool. Opening a shared link sends the settings in its address to HowToolbox to prepare the page.
Such as 12500, 0.00045 or 6.022e23.
Auto: leave empty to keep every digit you typed.
Scientific notation
1.25 × 10⁴
Written with 3 significant figures.
Other ways to write it
- Engineering notation
- 12.5 × 10³
- E notation
- 1.25e4
- Standard form
- 12,500
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Write a number in scientific and engineering notation with the significant figures you choose, or turn 6.022e23 back into digits.
How to use
- Type a number, such as 12500, 0.00045, 6.022e23 or 6.022 × 10^23.
- Read the scientific notation, with the engineering notation, E notation and the full digits below it.
- To round, enter the significant figures you want. Copy a value or the link to share it.
Common numbers in scientific notation
| Number | Scientific notation |
|---|---|
| 1,000 | 1 × 10^3 |
| 1,500 | 1.5 × 10^3 |
| 10,000 | 1 × 10^4 |
| 12,500 | 1.25 × 10^4 |
| 1,000,000 | 1 × 10^6 |
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How it works
Scientific notation writes a number as a mantissa between 1 and 10 times a power of ten: 12,500 is 1.25 × 10⁴, and 0.00045 is 4.5 × 10⁻⁴. It keeps very large and very small numbers short, and shows how many digits are meaningful. Engineering notation does the same but uses only powers of ten that are multiples of 3 (thousands, millions, milli, micro), so 12,500 is 12.5 × 10³.
Significant figures are the digits that carry information: all non-zero digits, zeros between them, and zeros after a decimal point. 1.500 has four, while the zeros in 1500 are not counted. Rounding to 3 figures turns 0.0123456 into 1.23 × 10⁻². The tool rounds the digits you typed, half up, so 1.005 to 3 figures is 1.01. Rules follow Wikipedia’s “Scientific notation”, “Engineering notation” and “Significant figures”.
Powers of ten from −99 to 99 are supported. A calculator’s “E” notation, such as 6.022e23, means × 10²³.
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a number in scientific notation?
Move the decimal point until one non-zero digit is before it, then multiply by 10 to the number of places moved: positive if you moved left, negative if right.
What is the difference between scientific and engineering notation?
Scientific notation has a mantissa from 1 to under 10. Engineering notation keeps the exponent a multiple of 3, so the mantissa is from 1 to under 1000.
How many significant figures does 1500 have?
By the usual convention 2, because trailing zeros of a whole number are not counted. Write 1500. or 1.500e3 to show all four.
What does 6.022e23 mean?
It is 6.022 × 10²³: move the decimal point 23 places to the right to get 602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Does adding significant figures make a measurement more accurate?
No. Extra trailing zeros change how precision is written; they cannot add information to the original measurement.
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