The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
When it is necessary to write very large or very small numbers, scientists and mathematicians use a method of notation that combines the significant digits of the number multiplied by ten with appropriate exponents that are integers. This is called scientific notation. When using this method, the numbers are often said to be multiplied by a power of ten. Positive powers of ten each add a zero to a number to the left of the decimal point, negative powers add a zero to the right of a decimal point. To illustrate, although these would not normally be used because they can be written and read more easily the usual way, in scientific notation, 1 would be written as 1 x 100, because 100=1. The number 10 would be written as 1 x 101, and 100 as 1 x 102. Working with numbers smaller than 1, 0.1 would be 1 x 10-1 in scientific notation, 0.01=1 x 10-2 and so on.
This method is a kind of shorthand that not only requires less writing, but also makes numbers more clear to the reader. With standard numeric notation, for example, one might have to count zeros to interpret a number like 0.00000000452, which, in scientific notation, takes fewer symbols to write and is easier, at a glance, to interpret: 4.52 x 10-9. This makes scientific notation very useful in working with the kinds of numbers often found especially in sciences where very large or small sizes and time frames are encountered.