Dealing with especially large numbers, can get cumbersome. And what's more, if the number is toolarge, it won't even fit on the display of your calculator. Try the following:

99 9 =

Your calculator will respond to this request with an answer in scientific notation. It will look like this:

9.135172475_x10¹⁷

This just means that to get to get the answer, you'd have to take 9.135172475 and multiply it by 10 seventeen times. That's a very large number.

Now try this: type a 1 followed by 12 zeros. When you press ENTER, the calculator will display this as:

1_x10¹²

Makes sense, doesn't it? you pressed zero 12 times, so that's the same as multiplying 1 by 10, twelve times!

But can you enter a number in scientific notation yourself? For example, if you want to enter the number 5_x10²⁵, is there a way to do it without pressing zero 25 times?

Yes, there is! And it's quite easy. Find the x^-1button, and look above it. You'll see the text EE. This is the scientific notation button. So try this:

5 2nd EE 25 = 

You'll see that your calculator now displays:

5_x10²⁵

Sometimes students are tempted to enter5x10²5, since it gives the same result. However, this is not the preferred method. Why?

Sometimes (and I see this often in physics calculations involving gravity!), you will have a calculation which has scientific notation in the denominator of a fraction.

Try typing these:

5 ÷ 2 2nd EE 20
5 ÷ 2 x 10 20

Do you get the same answer? No! Because in the second example, the division happens before the multiplication, giving an incorrect answer!

Sample
What is the value of 2²00 (give your answer to three decimal places)?

Solution
1.607 x 10⁶0

1.

What is the value of 7^77 (give your answer to 3 decimal places)?

2.

What is the value of 4^20 + 2 ^ 40 (give your answer to 3 decimal places)?

3.

What is the value of 2 x 10 ^ 10 divided by 3 x 10 ^ 8 (give your answer to 3 decimal places)?