For example, there are 10,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 carbon atoms in a 1-carat diamond each of which has a mass of 0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,020 grams. It is impossible to multiply these numbers with most calculators because they can't accept either number as it is written here. To do a calculation like this, it is necessary to express these numbers in scientific notation , as a number between 1 and 10 multiplied by 10 raised to some exponent. Some of the basics of exponential mathematics are given below. Any number raised to the zero power is equal to 1.
Any number raised to the first power is equal to itself.
Any number raised to the n th power is equal to the product of that number times itself n -1 times. Dividing by a number raised to an exponent is the same as multiplying by that number raised to an exponent of the opposite sign. In 1990 the population of Chicago was 6,070,000 1000. To convert this number to scientific notation we move the decimal point to the left six times. To convert numbers smaller than 1 into scientific notation, we have to move the decimal point to the right.