Express 856,000,000,000 using scientific notation.

Explanation

When you split the number 856,000,000,000 into a coefficient and a power of 10 you do get 856 billion in exponential form, but there is an indefinite number of possibilities.

As you probably want 856 billion in normalized scientific notation, the coefficient or significand of 856,000,000,000 must be in the interval [1,10[.

In other words, the coefficient has to be equal to or greater than 1 (≥1), and less than 10 (<10).

In this post we mean 856 billion in the normalized version, unless stated otherwise.

Not a convention, but this reflects the use of the term in daily life.

Therefore:

\(856 \text{ billion } = 8.56 \times 1011.\)


This can also be expressed as \(8.56 \times 10^{11}\) , using the caret symbol, or as 8.56e+11, which is called 856 billion in e-notation, further discussed in the section ahead.

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