1Cademy - Converting $$1.3 imes 10^3$$ and $$-1.2 imes 10^{-4}$$ to Decimal Form

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Procedure for Converting from Scientific Notation to Decimal Form

Example

Converting $1.3 imes 10^3$ and $-1.2 imes 10^{-4}$ to Decimal Form

Convert $1.3 imes 10^3$ and $-1.2 imes 10^{-4}$ to standard decimal form by moving the decimal point according to the exponent on $10$ .

Part ⓐ — Convert $1.3 imes 10^3$ to decimal form. The exponent is $3$ . Because the exponent is positive, shift the decimal point $3$ places to the right. Add zeros as needed for placeholders. Moving the decimal past the $3$ requires two additional zeros, resulting in $1{,}300$ . Therefore, $1.3 imes 10^3 = 1{,}300$ .

Part ⓑ — Convert $-1.2 imes 10^{-4}$ to decimal form. The exponent is $-4$ . Because the exponent is negative, shift the decimal point $4$ places to the left. Moving the decimal past the $1$ requires three additional placeholder zeros. The negative sign on the coefficient remains. This results in $-0.00012$ . Therefore, $-1.2 imes 10^{-4} = -0.00012$ .

Updated 2026-04-29

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OpenStax Intermediate Algebra

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