1. Sep 3, 2013

Frangelo

According to my math, 1 cubic centimeter equals 1x10-7 cubic meters not 1x10-6 cubic meters.

Is is my calculator broken, or is this why Hubble telescope is near-sighted?

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2. Sep 3, 2013

3. Sep 3, 2013

D H

Staff Emeritus
It probably works just fine. It's most likely operator error.

4. Sep 3, 2013

Frangelo

cubic cm x cube with dimensions 100cm x 100cm x 100cm = 1,000,000. So cubic cm is 1/1,000,000 cubic m.

1x10e-6 = .00001. 1/1,000,000 is either 1 x 10e-7, or 1e-6, but not 10e-6, right?

5. Sep 3, 2013

eigenperson

You're getting confused by notation.

The notation "AeN" means "Ax10N".

Google did not use this notation, because it is confusing and should be avoided. Google wrote, correctly, 1.0 x 10-6. You misinterpreted that to mean "10e-6," but really it means "1e-6".

6. Sep 3, 2013

Frangelo

May thanks. Got it!

7. Sep 3, 2013

D H

Staff Emeritus
It is something you can't avoid. I certainly wouldn't want to enter 6.0221×1023 into a calculator by entering 602210000000000000000000. Yech! It's much easier to enter 6.0221 * 1023 as a calculation, but easier yet is to enter it is 6.0221e23. Regardless of which approach one uses to enter that number, it will be displayed as 6.0221e23 (or 6.0221E23 on a TI).

The same applies to data entered into or read from a computer program. Scientific e notation is ubiquitous. It's almost impossible to avoid it, and it is not confusing once one learns it.

8. Sep 5, 2013

Frangelo

Still it is maybe easy to misinterpret for those not used to it. That fact that 10e-6 = 10-5 is well, confusing to the newbie. If the issue is its hard to type superscripts, I'd vote for how excel does it, 10^-6.

Interestingly the Wikipedia article on the subject said " The use of this notation is not encouraged in publications".

9. Sep 5, 2013

D H

Staff Emeritus
Excel displays very large and very small numbers using scientific e notation. You can also enter data into Excel using that notation.

10. Sep 5, 2013

Staff: Mentor

Every notation can be misinterpreted. e notation is well established and perfectly unambiguous.

11. Sep 5, 2013

Khashishi

e notation could be made better if people could come up with a unique symbol to replace e.

12. Sep 5, 2013

Staff: Mentor

1.234 * 1056 (with a proper multiplication sign) is preferred, indeed. For publications, the time to write numbers does not matter. If you want to type numbers in a calculator, things are different.

13. Sep 8, 2013

Redbelly98

Staff Emeritus
e notation is convenient because all necessary characters are found on standard keyboards, and there is no special text formatting, eg. superscripts for the exponents.

If by "unique symbol" you mean something that is not found on standard keyboards, then that would defeat the purpose of this notation.

Really, once you learn it, e notation is not a big deal.

14. Sep 9, 2013

Staff: Mentor

Including the keypunch devices that were the only way of interacting with computers back when FORTRAN was invented.... Which is, I believe, where the notation came from.