Step by step
The question
Question: write 0.00032 in scientific notation.
0.00032
1 What it looks like
Scientific notation is a number from 1 to under 10, times a power of 10.
a × 10n a: from 1 to under 10
2 Move the point
Moving the point 4 to the right made the number 10000 times bigger.
To make it the same again, we divide by 10000.
That is times 10⁻⁴.
10−4 = 110000
So 0.00032 is 3.2 × 10⁻⁴.
= 3.2 × 10−4
3 Check
Let's check: divide by 10000 moves the point 4 back to the left.
We get 0.00032 again!
3.2 ÷ 10000 = 0.00032
Let's look back.
First: what it looks like.
Then: move the point.
Last: check.
Answer
= 3.2 × 10−4