Math
Scientific notation converter
Convert any number between standard form (123456789), scientific notation (1.23456789 × 10⁸), and engineering notation (123.456 × 10⁶). Handles both plain and exponent input syntax.
Formula
Scientific notation expresses any number as a coefficient between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10. It's essential in physics, chemistry, astronomy, and any field dealing with very large or very small quantities. The Avogadro number (6.022 × 10²³) and Planck's constant (6.626 × 10⁻³⁴) are unreadable in standard form.
Engineering notation is a variant where the exponent is always a multiple of 3, aligning with SI prefixes (kilo 10³, mega 10⁶, giga 10⁹, etc.). It's preferred in electrical engineering and applied sciences because '47 × 10⁻⁶ farads' maps directly to '47 microfarads'.
The input accepts plain numbers (1234), e-notation (1.234e3), and explicit scientific form (1.234 × 10^3 or 1.234 * 10^3). Output shows all three forms.
Examples
- 01123,456,789→ 1.23456789 × 10⁸ · engineering: 123.457 × 10⁶
- 020.0000456→ 4.56 × 10⁻⁵ · engineering: 45.6 × 10⁻⁶ (= 45.6 micro)
- 03299,792,458 m/s (speed of light)→ 2.99792458 × 10⁸ · engineering: 299.792 × 10⁶
- 04Input '6.022e23'→ Parses as 6.022 × 10²³ (Avogadro)
FAQ
- By convention, standard scientific notation requires exactly one non-zero digit before the decimal point. This makes any two scientific-notation numbers directly comparable by their exponents — bigger exponent = bigger number (assuming same sign).