Andrew E. answered • 02/26/13
Dedicated Tutor--Proficient in Math, English and SAT Prep
No, this number is not written in scientific notation.
Proper scientific notation is "a * 10^b" where "a" is a number between 1 and 10 and "b" is an exponent.
This basically means that "a" will be multiplied by 10 "b" times. When something is multiplied by 10 to a certain power (exponent), the value of the exponent is the number of places the decimal point will move. Positive exponents move the decimal point to the right, negative exponents move it to the left. If there are no more numbers to move the point, a zero is put in place of the number.
Examples:
5.6 * 10^4 = 56000.=56000 the point moved right four places because the ten was to the fourth power.
3.1 * 10^-7= .00000031 = 0.00000031 the point moved 7 places to the left because the ten was to the negative seventh power
