Question

The approximate distance to the sun is 93,000,000 miles, and the wavelength of its ultraviolet light is 0.000035 centimeters. How do you write both numbers in scientific notation?

Answer 1

Try moving the point left or right to change it into an exponent of `10`:

Explanation:

For the distance we move the decimal point (ideally placed after the last zero) to the left and count the movements that will be used as exponent of `10`.
So we get:
`9.3color(red)(000000)`
So we moved the point `6` places (to pass the zeros) plus one to pass the `3` and we write:
`9.3×10^7`miles.

In the second case you do basically the same but moving the point to the right giving a NEGATIVE exponent of `10`.
Try by yourself you should get:
`3.5×10^-5`cm.