CalcArcade.

Scientific Notation Calculator

Type a number as a plain decimal, in E notation such as 6.022e23, or as 6.022 × 10^23. You get it in scientific, E and engineering notation, in full, and its significant figures.

Your numbers

Result

How we calculate it

Scientific notation writes a number as a mantissa from 1 up to (but not including) 10 times a power of ten, such as 2.99792458 × 10^8. Engineering notation is the same, but the exponent is always a multiple of 3, so the mantissa runs from 1 to under 1000, such as 299.792458 × 10^6. E notation writes the same thing as 2.99792458E8.

The calculator works on the digits you type, so nothing is lost to rounding. The significant figures are the digits from the first non-zero digit on. Zeros after a decimal point count, and so do zeros in the mantissa of a number you type in scientific form, but trailing zeros in a plain whole number do not. So 1200 has 2, 1200. has 4 and 1.20e3 has 3.

Assumptions and limits

  • Whole numbers that end in zeros are ambiguous. 1200 could be exact or rounded to the hundreds. Type 1200. or 1.200e3 to show that all four digits are significant.
  • Numbers can have up to 40 digits and an exponent up to ±600. The full decimal form is written out only when the exponent is between −100 and 100.
  • Accepted forms: 12345, 0.00012, 1.5e3, 1.5E-3, 1.5 × 10^3 and 1.5x10^3.

Frequently asked questions

How do I write a number in scientific notation?

Move the decimal point until one non-zero digit is in front of it, then multiply by 10 to the power of the number of places you moved. 299,792,458 becomes 2.99792458 × 10^8, and 0.000345 becomes 3.45 × 10^-4.

What is engineering notation?

It is scientific notation with the exponent restricted to multiples of 3 (…, −6, −3, 0, 3, 6, …). That matches the unit prefixes milli, kilo, mega and so on, so 0.000345 is written 345 × 10^-6.

How many significant figures does 0.00450 have?

It has 3: the digits 4, 5 and 0. The zeros before the 4 only show where the decimal point is. The trailing zero counts because it comes after a decimal point.

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Worked example (a fixed example using the starting numbers, it does not change as you type)

Inputs: Number = 299792458.

  • Scientific notation 2.99792458 × 10^8
  • E notation 2.99792458E8
  • Engineering notation 299.792458 × 10^6
  • Decimal form 299,792,458
  • Significant figures 9

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Last reviewed: . Formulas and assumptions are described on our methodology page. For information only; not professional advice.