- published: 24 Aug 2012
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Engineering notation is a version of scientific notation in which the powers of ten must be multiples of three (i.e., they are powers of a thousand, but written as, for example, 106 instead of 1,0002). As an alternative to writing powers of 10, SI prefixes can be used, which also usually provide steps of a factor of a thousand.
Compared to normalized scientific notation, one disadvantage of using SI prefixes and engineering notation is that significant figures are not always readily apparent. For example, 500 µm and 500 × 10−6 m cannot express the uncertainty distinctions between 5 × 10−4, 5.0 × 10−4, and 5.00 × 10−4 m. This can be solved by changing the range of the coefficient in front of the power from the common 1–1,000 to 0.001–1.0. In some cases this may be suitable; in others it may be impractical. In the previous example, 0.5, 0.50, or 0.500 mm would have been used to show uncertainty and significant figures. It is also common to state the precision explicitly, such as "47 kΩ ±5%"
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