498.82 centigrams to milligrams ( use scientific notation)

Question

498.82  centigrams to milligrams ( use scientific notation)

hulkster123 · Answer

4998.2 milligrams

uzsbgck · Answer

Ok but what about the interger for x 10

uzsbgck · Answer

@hulkster123

AZ · Answer

|dw:1614125644817:dw|

What will the integer be?

uzsbgck · Answer

3

AZ · Answer

Remember: when we're moving to the left, our integer will be positive

If we were moving towards the right, the integer for the exponent would have to be negative

AZ · Answer

So what's your final answer?

uzsbgck · Answer

4998.2  x 10 ^ -3

AZ · Answer

not quite

we moved that decimal point 3 places to the left so it would be 4.9882

(it's also 4.9882 not 4.9982, that one user who commented earlier made a typo)

But does that make sense?
We're moving the decimal point sometimes to the left, other times to the right
And in doing so we're multiplying some number by a 10^something

uzsbgck · Answer

wait so the 3 is postiive ? I get the first part

Nevaeh12 · Answer

use this site is can help you https://www.mathpapa.com/simplify-calculator/

AZ · Answer

yes because we're moving to the left

another way to think about it
what is 10^3?
It's 1000

If we multiply 1 by 1000, you'll get 1000

So when you move the decimal to the left (example 1000.0 to 1.0 *10^3), you're making that number smaller because you're pulling out 1000 from it and writing it as 10^3

AZ · Answer

And similarly, it works the other way

if you have a negative exponent like -2

10^(-2) = 1/10^2 = 1/100

We're essentially DIVIDING by 100

So that means the number was already small to begin with

so if we have 0.03

we want to move that decimal point over to the RIGHT to get 3.0
we would have to multiply by 10^(-2)

so 0.03  =  3 * 10^(-2)

AZ · Answer

Do those examples help clarify it for you? @uzsbgck