Chapter 3 - Scientific Notation and Powers of Ten

Abstract

This chapter describes the scientific notation and power of ten. The electronics engineer and technician work with both very small and very large numbers. A pico farad capacitor, a 1 MΩ resistor, or the number of electrons to pass a point to produce an ampere of current are among the range of values encountered. These numbers are impractical to write out because of the length of time and large amount of space required. The employment of scientific notation for numbers requires an understanding of the powers of ten. To simplify the mathematical operations pertaining to electronic circuits, it is important to utilize scientific notations with powers of ten. It is found that to add or subtract numbers in scientific notation, each number must have the same value of power of ten. It is observed that to multiply numbers in scientific notation the numbers are multiplied and the powers of ten are added and to divide numbers in scientific notation the numbers are divided and the power of ten of the denominator is subtracted from the power of ten of the numerator. It is noted that to raise numbers in scientific notation to a power, the numbers are raised to the power and the powers of ten are multiplied by the power.