Scientific Notation: Addition and Subtraction

Explains how to add and subtract numbers written in scientific notation, whether or not they have the same exponent.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• exponential
• physics
• math
• chemistry
• ap
• ib
• scientific
• notation
• add
• subtract
• coefficient
• sat
• tutor

[JesusLover077]

Does it HAVE to be only One number at the left of the decimal point, for an answer? Can it be more than one number?

[tdewitt451]

@JesusLover077 Yes, it HAS to be only one number to the left of the decimal point. If you have more than one, for an answer like 45.3 x 10^3, it's not right, and you have to change it to 4.53 x 10^4.

[DianaJimenezMUA]

does it matter which way you place the decimal to get both exponents to be the same?

[tdewitt451]

@DianaJimenezMUA nope, it doesn't make any difference which way you move the decimal point!

[awztukat]

For my question i got the answer -9.3 *10^-4. do i leave that as a negative and if not how do i make it positive?

[tdewitt451]

@awztukat you're completely good. it's just a negative number, nothing to worry about. you can write both positive and negative numbers using scientific notation.

[carefulangel13]

Thanks so much I finally get it , my actual teacher was making it more dificult than what it actually is..so thanks you really cleared it up.

[FURMANman10]

Great video it helped alot !!!!

[iRwaaar]

"We hope so hard that the powers are the same" Story of my life right here. In one of the questions I have it said that if the powers are really far apart you can count the smaller as zero, how can this be possible?

[AmurLeopard8]

Great teaching, Very Very good job helped me alot thank you so much.

[xXNo0bZXx]

I Learned this in 7 minutes while watching the video, teacher used 1 week to teach us and I din't understand..perfect.

HOLA SHIRAZ.

[DeckdogX]

@marina658 that is be pointless because even if you did add the 0, it would not be a sig, still leaving you with only 2 significant's

[willwillization]

This is like food to my brain, thank you sir!

[Fozzymillow]

@RockClanHD You can fix that by pushing like; that'll erase your dislike (=

[johnwon454]

Thanks for teaching us....

You are much clearer to understand than my teacher.....

[marianas658]

At the end of your video you talk about sig figs and how .14 x 10^3 should be written as 1.4 x 10^2... but shouldn't it be 1.40 x 10^2 since the original figures had 3 sig figs?