scientific notation

Standard scientific notation represents a number as a factor multiplied by a power of 10; 3,560,000 is expressed as 3.56 × 10⁶. This is useful for very large and very small numbers, especially in non-SI units. You can also use certain standard prefixes, many of which are listed here with their abbreviations.

10²⁴	yotta	Y
10²¹	zetta	Z
10¹⁸	exa	E
10¹⁵	peta	P
10¹²	tera	T
10⁹	giga	G
10⁶	mega	M
10³	kilo	k
10²	hecto	h
10¹	deka	da
10^-1	deci	d
10^-2	centi	c
10^-3	milli	m
10^-6	micro	µ
10^-9	nano	n
10^-12	pico	p
10^-15	femto	f
10^-18	atto	a
10^-21	zepto	z
10^-24	yocto	y

We recommend choosing a prefix that permits the numerical value to fall between 0.1 and 1,000 (62 kW rather than 62,000 W).

Subject:

Data and Measurement