Curriculum placement
Grade 8. This describes the skill, not a learner estimate.
Working in scientific notation
Represent compare and calculate very large or small quantities
Problem types
- Select the true scientific-notation equations
- Scientific notation to standard form
- Standard form to scientific notation
- How many times as large
- Calculate in scientific notation
- Choose a unit you can picture
- Show the work: scientific notation, quotients and products
Builds on
- Laws of exponents
- Powers of 10 and place value · Earlier idea
Multiplying and dividing by powers of ten shifts digits, and scientific notation writes any number as a digit string times one power of ten.
- Comparing decimals to hundredths · Earlier idea
Comparing numbers in scientific notation compares the powers of ten first, then compares the decimal parts as in comparing decimals.
- Multiplying by a multiple of 10 · Useful idea
Scientific notation multiplies a number by a power of ten, so its value is found with the same place shifts.
- Ten more and ten less · Earlier idea
Ten times more moves every digit one place left, and repeating that many times is what the power of ten in scientific notation records.
Leads to
- Choosing units and a sensible precision
- Building an exponential model · See it applied
Quantities that change by factors of ten, such as populations or decay, are written on a scale with powers of ten.
Related skills
- Logarithms as inverses of exponentials · Related idea
Scientific notation writes numbers as powers of ten, and a base-ten logarithm is that exponent.
- Rules for a geometric sequence · Shared foundations
- Adding, subtracting, and multiplying polynomials · Shared foundations
Open the interactive map to explore lessons and skill connections.