Scientific Notation Activity

Monday, October 22, 2012 11:10 AM

The average height of a human: 1.7 meters The average length of a hummingbird: 10 centimeters The average length of an ant: 4 millimeters The average length of a red light wave: 750 nanometers The average length of the largest virus: 440 nanometers DNA width: 3 nanometers Water molecule: 280 picometers Now you will need to scroll the other way to see the universe!! The average length of a Tyrannosaurus Rex: 7 meters The average US House: 15 x 10 meters Boeing 747: 65 meters Rhode Island: 75 kilometers Pluto: 2,300 kilometers Earth: 12,700 kilometers Saturn: 120,000 kilometers The Sun: 1.4 million kilometers Total Human Height: 10 million kilometers Stingray Nebula: 700 billion kilometer 1) When did you use negative exponents in scientific notation and why? We used negative exponents when we went in very small because everything is getting smaller and decreasing size and therefore exponent number.

2) When did you use positive exponents in scientific notation and why? We used positive exponents when we went in very large because everything is getting bigger and increasing size and exponent number. 3) How is using scientific notation with the same base unit of measurement when measuring multiple things helpful? It is helpful because you don't need to change one measurement to match the other. With scientific notation you just compare.
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other. With scientific notation you just compare. 4) Write about anything you noticed or found interesting.

I found out that that exponents can go into very low negative numbers, as low as possible and that was really interesting.

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