What is engineering notation and what is it used for?

Question

I *think* it's like scientific notation, but with thousands instead of 10s, but i'm not sure.

Answer 1

As Bill T said, engineering notation is just like scientific notation, except that the exponents on the 10 are multiples of 3.

1,000 is written as 1 x 10^3
50,000 is not written as 5 x 10^4, it's written as 50 x 10^3
88,800,000 is written as 88.8 x 10^6

It's used to make it easier to speak in terms of the metric unit prefixes involved, such as kilograms, megahertz, gigajoules, etc. There are not exact metric prefix terms given to exponents not divisible by 3, for the most part. Engineers have to ALWAYS know the units represented by a given value, and we definitely prefer to be consistent, so the "powers of 3" exponents are what is used.

Answer 2

Engineering notation is just like scientific notation, except that the exponents on the 10 are multiples of 3.

Answer 3

This notation uses numbers multiplied by 10 raised to a power multiple of 3
Example unit of power is watt
kilowatt=10^3 watt
megawatt=10^6 watt
Gigawatt=10^9watt
Terawatt= 10^12 watt

Answer 4

To add to what others have said, the reason Engineering notation is used is because it keeps the "number" in a range between 1 and 1000...this is in a range humans can relate to. And, as others have indicated, Engineers customarily replace the exponent with a letter. For instance, rather than saying 1x10^3 Volts they'll say or write 1kV. This is simpler to write and substantially easier to speak.