Scientific Notation in ChemistryA series of free High School Chemistry Video Lessons from Brightstorm.
Scientific Units There are certain unit systems which the scientific community has universally agreed upon. To measure distance in scientific units we use meters (m), to measure mass we use grams (g), to measure volume we use liters (L) and to measure temperature we use either degrees centigrade (C) or degrees Kelvin (K).
Scientific Notation Scientific notation is used to make extremely large or small numbers more manageable. Numbers written in scientific notation are the products of a digit term and an exponential term and are written in the general form a x 10^n. For example, 0.0000234 is written 2.34 x 10^n and 456,000 is written as 4.56 x 10^5.
Significant Figures When working with scientific data, we only want to show as many figures as carry accurate meaning, called significant figures. When adding or subtracting two numbers, we round to the same number of decimal places as the term with the fewest decimal places. When multiplying or dividing numbers we round to the same number of figures as the term with the lowest number of significant figures. In scientific notation, the digit term, not the exponential term counts as significant.
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