Question

The diameter of a certain bacterium is about 0.000006 meters. How would I rewrite that in scientific notation?

Answer 1

Scientific notation has to be greater then 1 and less then 10 and a decimal is less then one so we have to bring that decimal over 6 places to the right to get 6 x 10^-6

Answer: 6 x 10^-6

Answer 2

The answer is
`6*10^-^6`

Explanation:

In order to determine the scientific notation, we have to know about how we write it. A number in a scientific notation has two parts: just a digit in the interval (1,10) and a 10 powered by other number.

a=digit

`1\leq a<10`

`a*10^b`

We have to follow the next steps to figure out the "b" value:

1. To figure out the power of 10. We have to think "how many places we have to move the decimal point to obtain just a digit.
2. When the number is greater or equal 10, the decimal point is moved to the left, and the power of 10 is positive.
3. When the number is smaller than 1, the decimal point is moved to the right, and the power of 10 is negative.

In this case:

a=6

b=-6

`a*10^b\\6*10^-^6`

Finally the scientific notation is
`6*10^-^6`