Question

How do you write $ 173000 $ in scientific notation?

Answer 1

Hint: We first explain the purpose of scientific notation. Then we explain the process. We use the decimal point and move it leftwards to multiply the new number with 10. The multiplied form is the scientific form of the given number.

Complete step by step answer:
The purpose of scientific notation is for scientists to write very large, or very small, numbers with ease.
For the given number we move a decimal place to the left one position. The decimal starts from the very end of the number. The more we move to the left, the more we multiply with 10.
We explain the first two steps. The decimal starts after then last zero in 173000.
Now it goes before the last zero in 173000 which means we have to multiply 10.
So, 173000 becomes \[17300.0\times 10\].
Now in the second step, the point crosses two zeroes in total which gives \[1730.00\times {{10}^{2}}\].
We go on like this till the decimal point has only one digit to cross to go to the leftmost position of the number.
In 173000, the movement of the decimal point happens 5 times which means \[1.73000\times {{10}^{5}}\].
Therefore, the scientific notation of 173000 is \[1.73000\times {{10}^{5}}\].

Note:
 We also can ignore the zeroes after decimal points and make the notation as \[1.73\times {{10}^{5}}\] for simplicity and mathematical use. The use of \[1.73000\] is unnecessary. But in cases we have digits other than 0 after the decimal, we can’t ignore those digits.