PHYS 1901 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Scientific Notation, Astronomical Unit, Special Relativity
1 Jun 2020
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Exponents: 100 = 10 10 = 102, 1,000 = 10 10 10 = 103, 1,000,000 = 10 10 10 10 10 10 = 106. 10,000 = 10 10 10 10 = 104. 100,000 = 10 10 10 10 10 = 105. Multiply 2 numbers of the same base with exponents just add exponents: 103 x 105 = 103+5 = 108. Negative exponent tells us how many times to divide by the base number: 103 x 10-2 1000 x 0. 01, =103-2, =101. Any base (other than zero) with an exponent of 0 is 1: 100 = 1. Most numbers in physics/astronomy express as a power of ten multiplied by some factor: speed of light, 300,000 km/s, = 3 x 105 km/s. = 3 x 100,000 km/s: earth distance (astronomical unit, 1 au= 150,000,000 km, = 1. 5 x 100,000,000 km, = 1. 5 x 108 km, size of hydrogen atom, 0. 0000000000005m = 5 x 0. 00000000001m, = 5 x 10-11m.
