Q: How is the number 3 written in Scientific Notation?

 A: 3 x 100

Why is 3 written as 3 x 100 in scientific notation?

The purpose of scientific notation is for scientists to write very large, or very small, numbers with ease.

Calculating scientific notation for a positive integer is simple, as it always follows this notation:

a x 10b

Follow the steps below to see how 3 is written in scientific notation.

Step 1

To find a, take the number and move a decimal place to the right one position.

  • Original Number: 3
  • New Number: 3.

Step 2

Now, to find b, count how many places to the right of the decimal.

New Number: 3.
Decimal Count:

There are 0 places to the right of the decimal place.

Step 3

Building upon what we know above, we can now reconstruct the number into scientific notation.

Remember, the notation is: a x 10b

a = 3

b = 0

Now the whole thing:

3 x 100

Step 4

Check your work:

100 = 1 x 3 = 3


More Scientific Notation Examples

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1 x 1002 x 1004 x 1005 x 100

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