So, as you may or may not know, I'm taking my 'O' levels here as a private candidate, and I'm right now doing this excercise in the textbook I have here. I stumbled upon this question that goes like this:
Express 74 cubic CM in cubic M, giving your answer:
(a) as a decimal;
(b) in standard form.
The answers given were 0.000074 for (a) and 7.4 x 10^-5 for (b).
Now, I am checking these answers with my calculator, and for some reason, it is showing 7.4 x 10^-5 as 0.00074. I'm not sure who's wrong here, though I'm suspecting my calculator, as impossible as it might sound, might be trying to be funky here. Can someone please help and clarify? Also, can someone clear up on how the exponential notation works?
your calculator is wrong, either that or you didn't key in properly
Originally posted by eagle:your calculator is wrong, either that or you didn't key in properly
Hmmm...just read your post and decided to go though the steps of keying the equation into my calculator, and seems like I did mess up or something.
If I key in:
(7) (•) (4) (X) (1) (0) (EXP) (+/-) (5)
It shows:
7.4X10E-05=0.00074
But if I key in
(7) (•) (4) (X) (10^) (+/-) (5)
It shows the answer I look for:
7.4X10^-5=0.000074
Am I confusing something here?
[EXP] already got x 10
when u key in [7] [.] [4] [EXP] [5] [+/-] ,
u are already keying-in 7.4 x 10^(-5)
I see... thanks for pointing that out.