Scientific Notation problem. Help please!!

Anyway, I can't exactly answer your question, because i don't know decimal notation yet. I already have my answer, but thanks for all the help anyway.
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This is not the way to learn from people who are willing to teach. You should have asked what was meant by decimal notation because ...

[QUOTE}oh. i didnt know that was what you called it.[/QUOTE]

You did know decimal notation; you just didn't know that "decimal notation" was a name for the notation used by almost everyone except scientists. You get impatient, and you give up. That is not demonstrating your famous will power.

In 0.5 * 10 to the negative 9th power, do you move the decimal to the left instead of the right to get the standard notation form? If i am correct, i think the answer is .000000005.
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8 zeroes preceding the 5.

I have no clue how the answer that you posted here was marked as correct. Possibly what you wrote on your homework was different from what you posted here, or possibly your teacher made a mistake. (They do from time to time.)

Let's see why.

\(\displaystyle 0.5 = 5 * 10^{-1}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.05 = 5 * 10^{-2}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.005 = 5 * 10^{-3}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.0005 = 5 * 10^{-4}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.00005 = 5 * 10^{-5}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.000005 = 5 * 10^{-6}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.0000005 = 5 * 10^{-7}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.00000005 = 5 * 10^{-8}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.000000005 = 5 * 10^{-9}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.00000000005 = 5 * 10^{-10}.\)

See the pattern. If the exponent is negative, the number of zeroes to the right of the decimal point is one less than the absolute value of the exponent.

So the answer that you gave was \(\displaystyle 0.5 * 10^{-9} = 0.000000005.\) 8 zeroes to the right of the decimal point. But that is not the correct answer.

\(\displaystyle 0.5 * 10^{-9} = 5 * 10^{-10} = 0.0000000005.\) 9 zeroes to the right of the decimal point.

By the way, most of us here have dealt with kids a lot in one way or another. So we know which ones are smart or not, and we expect the smart ones to use the smarts they have been blessed with. We also know which ones allow their emotions to get in the way of their smarts. And we do not cater to emotions prevailing over smarts.
 
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I have no clue how the answer that you posted here was marked as correct. Possibly what you wrote on your homework was different from what you posted here, or possibly your teacher made a mistake. (They do from time to time.)

Let's see why.

\(\displaystyle 0.5 = 5 * 10^{-1}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.05 = 5 * 10^{-2}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.005 = 5 * 10^{-3}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.0005 = 5 * 10^{-4}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.00005 = 5 * 10^{-5}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.000005 = 5 * 10^{-6}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.0000005 = 5 * 10^{-7}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.00000005 = 5 * 10^{-8}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.000000005 = 5 * 10^{-9}.\)

\(\displaystyle 0.00000000005 = 5 * 10^{-10}.\)

See the pattern. If the exponent is negative, the number of zeroes to the right of the decimal point is one less than the absolute value of the exponent.

So the answer that you gave was \(\displaystyle 0.5 * 10^{-9} = 0.000000005.\) 8 zeroes to the right of the decimal point. But that is not the correct answer.

\(\displaystyle 0.5 * 10^{-9} = 5 * 10^{-10} = 0.0000000005.\) 9 zeroes to the right of the decimal point.
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I don't know how i got the problem marked correct. I will talk to my teacher about it later. It is also possible that i put the correct answer down on the paper by mistake.
 
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