Question

How do you write 250 million in scientific notation?

Answer 1

250,000,000 `= 2.5 xx 10^8`

Starting with 250,000,000 you can count the number of times you need to shift it one digit to the right until the result is less than `10`. This is the power of `10` to use for the exponent.

Conversely, if your starting number is less than `1`, count the number of times you need to shift it to the left before it is greater than or equal to `1`. This is the size of the negative exponent of `10`.

For example, `0.0025 = 2.5 xx 10^-3`