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Scientific Notation Converter

Convert any number to scientific notation, engineering notation, and E-notation instantly. You can also convert from scientific notation back to a full decimal number.

Scientific notation expresses numbers as a coefficient between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10. It is essential in science, engineering, and mathematics for working with extremely large or small values, such as the speed of light or the mass of an electron.

Scientific Notation —
E-Notation —
Engineering Notation —
Coefficient —
Exponent —
× 10
Decimal Number —
E-Notation —

About Scientific Notation

Scientific notation is a way of writing numbers that are too large or too small to be conveniently written in standard decimal form. A number in scientific notation is expressed as a coefficient (a value between 1 and 10, but not equal to 10) multiplied by 10 raised to an integer exponent. For example, 602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 is written as 6.022 × 1023 (Avogadro's number). Very small numbers use negative exponents: 0.000000001 becomes 1 × 10-9. Engineering notation is a variant where the exponent is always a multiple of 3, aligning with metric prefixes such as kilo, mega, milli, and micro.

FAQ

What is scientific notation?
Scientific notation is a standard way of writing very large or very small numbers. A number is expressed as a coefficient between 1 and 10 (including 1 but not 10) multiplied by a power of 10. For example, 4,500 becomes 4.5 × 103 and 0.003 becomes 3 × 10-3. The exponent indicates how many places the decimal point has moved.
How do you convert a number to scientific notation?
Move the decimal point until you have a number between 1 and 10 — this is the coefficient. Count how many places you moved the decimal: if you moved it to the left, the exponent is positive; if to the right, it is negative. For example, 0.00056 → move the decimal 4 places right → 5.6 × 10-4. For 72,000 → move 4 places left → 7.2 × 104.
What is engineering notation?
Engineering notation is a version of scientific notation where the exponent is restricted to multiples of 3 (such as 3, 6, 9, -3, -6, -9). This aligns with SI metric prefixes: 103 = kilo, 106 = mega, 109 = giga, 10-3 = milli, 10-6 = micro, and so on. The coefficient in engineering notation can range from 1 to 999.999... instead of being limited to 1 through 9.999...
When is scientific notation used?
Scientific notation is used in physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology, and engineering whenever numbers are extremely large or small. Examples include the speed of light (3 × 108 m/s), the charge of an electron (1.6 × 10-19 coulombs), distances between stars, and sizes of atoms. It is also used in computing (E-notation, e.g. 1.23E+4) and on scientific calculators.

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