2.2 Scientific Notation and Significant Figures
2.2
Scientific Notation and Significant Figures
Scientific Notation:
In science, we deal with some very LARGE numbers:
1 mole = 602000000000000000000000
In science, we deal with some very SMALL numbers:
Mass of an electron =
0.000000000000000000000000000000091 kg
Imagine the difficulty of calculating the mass of
1 mole of electrons!
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Scientific Notation:
300,000,000 = 3.0 x 10 8
.000034 = 3.4 x 10 -5
Scientific Notation Rules
• Only one number should be to the left of the decimal
• This is wrong: 34.0 x 10 -4
• This is wrong: .56 x 10 -4
• This is correct: 7.2 x 10 -4
• If the number goes down, the exponent goes up
• If the number goes up, the exponent goes down
The exponent is the number of places we moved the decimal.
The exponent is negative because the number we started with was less than 1.
Example:
Example
Practice Problems:
Practice Problems
Scientific Notation to Standard Form
Practice Problems:
6.27 x 10 6
9.01 x 10 4
4.56 x 10 -3
Significant Figures
The measurable units of a measuring device plus one estimated digit.
Significant Figures
.Pacific -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐Atlan-c
• 34.007
• .0078
• 234000
• 6700.100
Practice Problems
Pie Graph and Table
A pie chart is a circular chart divided into sectors, each sector shows the relative size of each value.
Bar Graphs
A bar graph is a graph drawn using rectangular bars to show how large each value is. (The bars can be horizontal or vertical)
Line Graphs
A line graph is a graph that uses points connected by lines to show how something changes in value (as time goes by, or as something else happens).
