Question

How do you write the number 3,200,000 in scientific notation?

Answer 1

Consider that any number in scientific notation is written only with one digit before the decimal point and with one decimal number.

Then, 3,200,000 can be written as follow:

`3,200,000=3.2\cdot10^6`

where the power of 10 is given by the number of positions after the first digit. As you can notice, to obtain number 3.2 for the scientific notation, you move the decimal point 6 places to the left:

3,200,000 => 3.2*10^6

that is the reason the power of 10 must be 6.