I don't know what this number means or how to enter it into my calculator

Question

I have T 1 84 plus, and don't know how to enter this problem into my calculator. 

3.138159506 E 15/1 E 20. Can anyone tell me how to enter that into my calculator and also what it means. I don't know what a new number that looks like that means.

Answer 1

Sarah,

           The E 15 notation is a substitute for 10¹⁵ which is a large number. so 3.13815....*10¹⁵/1*10²⁰=3.13815...*10^-5 a small number.

On the Ti 84 you can enter E15 as 10^15. There may be other was to enter it but this way works.

 

 

Jim

Answer 2

That "E" is calculator notation for scientific notation.  So what you're doing is

 

(3.138159506 x 10¹⁵ ) ÷ (1 x 10²⁰ )

 

On the calculator itself, you can type it as a multiplication with the "carrot" key ("^") or you can use the blue 2nd, LOG button that does the 10 power.  Either way, the calculator does the "E" part for you.