Entering numbers in Scientific Notation?

Question

I need to play with a lot of powers such as 10^-3. 1E-3 does not work for it. Is there any short form for it?

Scientific notation is very convenient in programming. – dtn Jan 15 '20 at 06:10 — dtn, Jan 15 '20 at 06:10

score 119 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 18 '17 at 14:51

119

I'm surprised there isn't a question about this (i.e. entering numbers in scientific notation) already.

To enter $3\times10^{-3}$, you can write 3*^-3.

For further reference, see Input Syntax: Numbers.

edited Jan 18 '17 at 14:51

gyger

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answered Nov 11 '13 at 08:15

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Yeah... it's indeed very surprising. Even Google does a bad job of leading to the correct syntax (of course that's before this answer became popular — now this is one of the top answers). – Shashank Sawant Oct 31 '14 at 08:44
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That notation looks SO funny and wrong to me. Where did it come from, and why not use the old E notation which many people already know? – Ralph Dratman May 02 '17 at 18:07
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@Ralph: Because in Mathematica E already means $e\approx 2.718$, so 3E-3 is interpreted as $3e-3$. – May 02 '17 at 18:38
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It's so easy to think of and to write 3*10^-3 that people might not be motivated to look for another way. I've seen hundreds of notebooks and only very rarely seen the *^ notation. – Reb.Cabin Oct 13 '18 at 03:17
The E notation works when importing data from a file with a CSV extension and in which the data values are separated by commas. – CElliott Aug 21 '19 at 14:32

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 10 '18 at 02:09

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I ran into this as well teaching some solubility chemistry (it's logs all the way down). The notation can get in the way, but most students can keep up with 1×10^-5 syntax - just don't forget to wrap it in brackets i.e.:

1*^-10/1*^-5 == (1×10^-10)/(1×10^-5)
(* True *)

NB: the × in 1×10 is added automatically when pushing space.

edited Oct 10 '18 at 02:09

J. M.'s missing motivation

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answered Oct 10 '18 at 01:43

Joe

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A related thread. – J. M.'s missing motivation Oct 10 '18 at 02:11

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 07 '22 at 12:49

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Sure, easy.

100,000 = 1*^5
1/10 = 1*^-1
6/10 = 6*^-1
3200 = 32 *^ 2

Try it and see!

edited Jan 07 '22 at 12:49

Paul Du Bois

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answered Jan 14 '20 at 18:00

Ratch

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Is the $1/6 $ an error ? That would rather be 6^-1 – Dunlop Jan 14 '20 at 19:56
Sorry 6*^-1 = 6/10 = 3/5 – Ratch Jan 15 '20 at 05:54

Entering numbers in Scientific Notation?

3 Answers3