Scientific notation electronic calculators

Since not all electronic calculators are alike, detailed instructions cannot be given here. Read your instruction manual. You should purchase a calculator which, in addition to , —, x, and a functions, provides at least the following scientific notation (powers of ten) logarithms and antilogarithins (inverse logarithms) both natural and common (base ten) and exponentials (y ). If it has these functions, it will probably have reciprocals (1/jt), squares, square roots, and trigonometric functions as well. 

Exponential notation enables easy reporting of extremely large and extremely small numbers. A number in scientific notation consists of a coefficient times 10 to an integral power, where the coefficient is equal to or greater than 1 but less than 10. Learn how to convert numbers from exponential notation to ordinary decimal values, and vice versa, and also how to use exponential numbers in calculations. Also learn to use effectively an electronic calculator with exponential capability (see Appendix 1). (Section 2.2)... 

All digits in the coefficient of a properly reported value in scientific notation are significant, because the exponential part of the number gives the magnitude. The electronic calculator will do the arithmetic with numbers in scientific notation, but we still have to know how the process works because the calculator does not consider sigrrificant digits. See Section 1.3 for a discussion of calculator processing of numbers in exponential form. 

Some electronic calculators allow you to easily convert numbers to scientific notation. If you have such a calculator, you can change a number shown in the usual form to scientific notation simply by pressing the EE or EXP key and then the = key (or in some cases the = key and then the exponent key). 

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