Question

How do you write 5.32 milligrams in scientific notation?

Answer 1

Hint: For a number to be written in scientific notation. It has two parts: in the first part we will convert the given number if necessary to a number from 1 to 10 then the second power contains the power of 10 and we will adjust the power of 10 in such a manner so that the originality of the number will not be destroyed. The number given in the above problem is 5.32 milligrams so to convert into scientific notation we have to first of all write the milligrams into the power of 10 and then adjust the number to fit into scientific notation.

Complete step by step answer:
The number given above which has to convert into scientific notation is:
5.32 milligrams
We know that, 1 milligram is equal to ${{10}^{-3}}gram$ so we are going to replace milligrams written above by multiplying 5.32 by ${{10}^{-3}}gram$.
$5.32\times {{10}^{-3}}gram$
Now, we are going to convert the number into scientific notation which contains two parts. First part should be in between 1 to 10 and as you can see that the first part of the number is already in between 1 to 10 i.e. 5.32 so we don’t have to adjust the number. Now, comes the second part which should be some power of 10 and as you can see that the second part of the above number is also written in the power of 10.

Hence, the scientific notation for 5.32 milligrams is:
$5.32\times {{10}^{-3}}gram$

Note: Sometimes in the hastiness of solving the problem you might think that as in 5.32 milligrams, the number 5.32 is already in between 1 to 10 so we don’t have to solve it and you will write the scientific notation as just 5.32 milligram. This approach will land you in trouble because the scientific notation contains the second part too which contains the power of 10 so make sure you won’t forget to accommodate the power of 10 in this conversion.