Scientific notation means writing numbers as powers of ten.
| one | 1 = 10 0 | one | 1 = 10 0 |
| ten | 10 = 10 1 | tenth | 0.1 = 10-1 |
| hundred | 100 = 10 2 | hundredth | 0.01 = 10-2 |
| thousand | 1,000 = 10 3 | thousandth | 0.001 = 10-3 |
| million | 1,000,000 = 10 6 | millionth | 0.000001 = 10-6 |
| billion | 1,000,000,000 = 10 9 | billionth | 0.000000001 = 10-9 |
| bigger ... | smaller ... | ||
We use different prefixes to express different size scales.
| thousand | Kilo | (K) | 10 3 | thousandth | milli | (m) | 10 -3 |
| million | Mega | (M) | 10 6 | millionth | micro | (mu) | 10 -6 |
| billion | Giga | (G) | 10 9 | billionth | nano | (n) | 10 -9 |
| trillion | Tera | (T) | 10 12 | trillionth | pico | (p) | 10-12 |
| bigger ... | smaller ... | ||||||