Computing in scientific notation

The  exercise appears under the 8th Grade Math Mission. This exercise practices using scientific notation in arithmetic and context problems.

Types of Problems
There are two types of problems in this exercise:


 * 1) Solve the word problem: This problem provides a contextual question involving numbers in scientific notation and multiplication, division or percentages. The student is asked to correctly solve the problem and give the answer.Cisn1.png
 * 2) Perform the arithmetic problem: This problem provides an arithmetic problem with several numbers in scientific notation. The student is to find the final answer to the problem also in scientific notation.Cisn2.png

Strategies
Order of operations is useful for expansion, but knowledge and familiarity with scientific notation is really key for this exercise.
 * 1) Many calculators have a scientific notation mode that can be used to increase accuracy and speed on this problem.
 * 2) The numbers used are controlled so that there is no need for rounding. Therefore it can be good practice for practice multiplying and dividing decimals and basic exponent rules.
 * 3) The word problem often indicates whether it is a product or a quotient that needs to be used to complete the problem.

Real-life applications

 * 1) Scientific notation has many applications in the sciences.
 * 2) Scientific notation is useful for representing very large or very small quantities.