Notación científica. Cómo pasar un número a notación científica

This is the mass of the Sun, and this is the approximate mass of a proton. As you can see, these are very difficult quantities to read. Fortunately, scientific notation exists, and we can write the mass of the Sun this way and the mass of the proton this way. You're probably wondering right now, how can we

go from this huge number to this compact number, and how can we also go from this very small number to this other compact number? Well, in this lesson, I'm going to explain in detail how we can convert from expanded notation to scientific notation. So please pay close attention because without further ado [Music], we'll begin. I'll

start by converting these four large numbers to scientific notation, then I'll convert four small ones, also to scientific notation, and then I'm going to give you two homework exercises. Okay, let's start with part a. We're going to convert 5000 to scientific notation. But before I tell you the simple recipe, the simple steps to be able to

convert, it's important that you understand why. So I need you to follow me in the following explanation, which I'm only going to give for the first exercise; the others... We're going to do it with these easy steps, okay? But first, pay close attention to how I solve the first one. Look, we agree that

5000 is the same as 5 * 1000, right? So instead of writing 5000, what do you think if I express it as 5 * 1000? It's still the same, right? 5 times 1000 is the same as 5000. Now, I can put this 1000 with a power of 10. Let's see, 10 to the power of 10 is

the same as 1000. Well, 10 to the power of 1 is 10, 10 cubed is 100, and 10 cubed is 1000, right? So instead of writing 1000, I'm going to write 10 cubed, or 10 to the power of 3, which is the same thing, right? So, look, this is going to look like this. I'm going to