Scientific notation

Question

A picosecond is one trillionth of a second (0.000 000 000 001 s) . (a) Write this number in scientific notation. (b) How many picoseconds are there in one second? Write this answer in scientific notation.

Answer 1

a) Count the number of places the decimal has to be moved to the right. It would be 12 places. Therefore the number can be written as 1x10¹²

b) Use dimensional analysis:

1 sec x 1x10¹² psec/sec = 1x10¹² psec

There are 10¹² picoseconds (one trillion picoseconds) in 1 second