4
5 . E X P O N E N T DI S P L AY
The distance from the earth to the sun is approx. 150,000,000 (1.5 x 10
8
) km. Values
such as this with many zeros are often used in scientific calculations, but entering the
zeros one by one is a great deal of work and it’s easy to make mistakes.
In such a case, the numerical values are divided into mantissa and exponent portions,
displayed and calculated.
<Example>
W hat is the number of electronics flowing in a conductor when
the electrical charge across a given cross-section is 0.32 cou-
lombs. (The charge on a single electron = 1.6 x 10
-19
coulombs).
0.32
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