Im confused about a question in my bio lab, the question is asking about the transformation efficiency and it says something like "transformation efficiency calculations result in something that should need scientific notation." My transformants/microgram came out as 10.2 and obviously there's no need for scientific notation. What's wrong here?

Question

trancenova · Answer

Hmmm the question confuses me a little too, but I do have some ideas. Firstly have you learned anything about specific values numbers are supposed to be in?

Usually in science the base unit for weight is in Kilograms, so we need to convert 10.2micrograms to kilograms (which would need scientific notation). Which is 1.02*10^-8Kg (if you don't know how I got this number make sure you ask :) )

Scientific notation is also used to demonstrate how many significant values your answer is accurate to. So for 10.2 micrograms it is significant to 2 decimal places (I can't think of the right word, but does that make sense?). So to demonstrate your "decimals" while keeping your units it would be 1.02 *10 micrograms.