1Cademy - Converting $$37{,}000$$ and $$0.0052$$ to Scientific Notation

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Procedure for Converting from Decimal Notation to Scientific Notation

Example

Converting $37{,}000$ and $0.0052$ to Scientific Notation

To convert a number to scientific notation, apply the four-step procedure of moving the decimal point, counting the places moved, writing the product with a power of $10$ , and checking the result.

Example 1: $37{,}000$

Move the decimal point: Shift the implied decimal point in $37{,}000$ to the left to get $3.7$ , which is between $1$ and $10$ .
Count the places moved: The decimal point traveled $4$ places to the left.
Write as a product: Because $37{,}000$ is greater than $1$ , the exponent is positive $4$ , giving $3.7 imes 10^4$ .
Check: $3.7 imes 10{,}000 = 37{,}000$ . Therefore, $37{,}000 = 3.7 imes 10^4$ .

Example 2: $0.0052$

Move the decimal point: Shift the decimal point in $0.0052$ to the right to get $5.2$ .
Count the places moved: The decimal point traveled $3$ places to the right.
Write as a product: Because $0.0052$ is between $0$ and $1$ , the exponent is negative $-3$ , giving $5.2 imes 10^{-3}$ .
Check: $5.2 imes 0.001 = 0.0052$ . Therefore, $0.0052 = 5.2 imes 10^{-3}$ .

Try It Exercises:

Convert $96{,}000$ to scientific notation: $9.6 imes 10^4$
Convert $0.0078$ to scientific notation: $7.8 imes 10^{-3}$
Convert $48{,}300$ to scientific notation: $4.83 imes 10^4$
Convert $0.0129$ to scientific notation: $1.29 imes 10^{-2}$

Updated 2026-04-29

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