Scientific Notation Converter
Convert numbers between standard form and scientific notation (E notation). Supports very large and very small numbers with configurable significant figures.
Significant figures:
Scientific Constants Reference
| Constant | Value |
|---|---|
| Speed of light | 2.998 × 10^8 m/s |
| Avogadro's number | 6.022 × 10^23 /mol |
| Planck's constant | 6.626 × 10^-34 J·s |
| Electron mass | 9.109 × 10^-31 kg |
| Proton mass | 1.673 × 10^-27 kg |
| Earth mass | 5.972 × 10^24 kg |
| Sun mass | 1.989 × 10^30 kg |
| Light year | 9.461 × 10^15 m |
| Boltzmann constant | 1.381 × 10^-23 J/K |
| Gravitational constant | 6.674 × 10^-11 m³/kg·s² |
How to Use Scientific Notation Converter
- 1Enter a number in standard form or scientific notation.
- 2See the conversion instantly in both formats.
- 3Adjust the number of significant figures.
- 4Copy the result for use in your calculations.
Zenovay
Privacy-first analytics for your website
Understand your visitors without invasive tracking. GDPR compliant, lightweight, and powerful.
Related Tools
Color ConverterConvert colors between HEX, RGB, HSL, and CMYK formats. Live preview with color picker.
Unit ConverterConvert between units of length, weight, temperature, area, volume, speed, and more.
Number Base ConverterConvert numbers between binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal bases.
Unix Timestamp ConverterConvert between Unix timestamps and human-readable dates. Show ISO 8601, UTC, local time, and relative time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is scientific notation?▾
Scientific notation expresses any number as a × 10^b, where 1 ≤ |a| < 10 and b is an integer. Examples: 300,000,000 = 3 × 10^8 (speed of light in m/s), 0.000001 = 1 × 10^-6, 6.022 × 10^23 (Avogadro's number). It is used to compactly represent very large numbers (astronomical distances, national debts) and very small numbers (atomic sizes, quantum scales) without writing many zeros.
What is E notation?▾
E notation (or engineering notation) is a compact form of scientific notation used in programming and calculators. "E" replaces "× 10^": 3e8 = 3 × 10^8, 1.5e-6 = 1.5 × 10^-6. Languages: JavaScript Number.toExponential(), Python f"{n:.2e}", Java String.format("%e", n), Go fmt.Sprintf("%e", n). Excel: 1.23E+06. Calculators: EE key enters the exponent. E notation is always base 10.
What are significant figures?▾
Significant figures (sig figs) represent the precision of a measurement. 1.23 × 10^4 has 3 significant figures; the zeros in 12300 are ambiguous (could be 3, 4, or 5 sig figs). Rules: all non-zero digits count; zeros between non-zero digits count; leading zeros never count; trailing zeros after decimal point count. In scientific notation, all digits in the coefficient count: 1.230 × 10^4 has 4 sig figs.
What is engineering notation?▾
Engineering notation is similar to scientific notation but restricts the exponent to multiples of 3 (matching SI prefixes: kilo=10^3, mega=10^6, giga=10^9, milli=10^-3, micro=10^-6, nano=10^-9). Example: 150,000 in standard scientific notation is 1.5 × 10^5 but in engineering notation is 150 × 10^3 = 150 kilo. Engineers prefer this because it maps directly to physical unit prefixes.
How does JavaScript handle very large numbers?▾
JavaScript uses 64-bit IEEE 754 double-precision floating point. Maximum safe integer: 2^53 - 1 = 9,007,199,254,740,991 (Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER). Maximum value: ~1.8 × 10^308 (Number.MAX_VALUE). For larger integers, use BigInt. For scientific calculations, the number library (Decimal.js, math.js) provides arbitrary precision. toExponential(n) formats to n decimal places in coefficient: (12345).toExponential(2) → "1.23e+4".