scientific notation

pipandliz · May 26th, 2002, 11:56 AM

I am taking a course(beginners) in excel and
2 questions in the pre-exam relate to scientific notation which we have had no tuition on. Can anyone explain ? remembering I am a beginner

Cheers

Brian from Maui · May 26th, 2002, 12:07 PM

This may help

In cells that have the default General number format, Microsoft Excel displays numbers as integers (789), decimal fractions (7.89), or scientific notation (7.89E+08) if the number is longer than the width of the cell. The General format displays up to 11 digits, including a decimal point and characters such as "E" and "+." To use numbers with more digits, you can apply a built-in scientific number format (exponential notation) or a custom number format.

Chris Davison · May 26th, 2002, 12:40 PM

yup

and my understanding of the "E" is that it means "Exponentiation" where E+03 means 10^3.

so 2.4E+07 is 2.4 x 10^7 = 24,000,000

and where 1E+16 is a quicker way of writing 10,000,000,000,000,000

_________________
Hope this helps,
Chris
(Excel '97, Windows ME)

[ This Message was edited by: Chris Davison on 2002-05-26 11:42 ]

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May 26th, 2002, 11:56 AM	#1
pipandliz New Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 1	I am taking a course(beginners) in excel and 2 questions in the pre-exam relate to scientific notation which we have had no tuition on. Can anyone explain ? remembering I am a beginner Cheers

May 26th, 2002, 12:07 PM	#2
Brian from Maui Board Regular Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 7,743	This may help In cells that have the default General number format, Microsoft Excel displays numbers as integers (789), decimal fractions (7.89), or scientific notation (7.89E+08) if the number is longer than the width of the cell. The General format displays up to 11 digits, including a decimal point and characters such as "E" and "+." To use numbers with more digits, you can apply a built-in scientific number format (exponential notation) or a custom number format.

May 26th, 2002, 12:40 PM	#3
Chris Davison MrExcel MVP Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Millbank, London, UK Posts: 1,790	yup and my understanding of the "E" is that it means "Exponentiation" where E+03 means 10^3. so 2.4E+07 is 2.4 x 10^7 = 24,000,000 and where 1E+16 is a quicker way of writing 10,000,000,000,000,000 _________________ Hope this helps, Chris (Excel '97, Windows ME) [ This Message was edited by: Chris Davison on 2002-05-26 11:42 ]