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Scientific Notation Converter

Q: What is the difference between scientific and engineering notation?

Scientific notation keeps one digit before the decimal point; engineering notation uses exponents that are multiples of 3 so the number maps onto SI prefixes (10^3 = kilo, 10^-6 = micro).

Q: How many digits are kept?

All significant digits of the input (up to 12 in the text forms); to shorten the mantissa, round the value first with the rounding calculator.

Writes a number in normalised scientific notation m × 10^e with 1 ≤ |m| < 10, in E-notation, and in engineering notation (exponent a multiple of 3).

When to use

You need a very large or very small number in scientific or engineering form, or its order of magnitude.

Do not use when: You want to round a number to a given precision (use rounding) or compute a power (use exponent).

Formula

e = ⌊log10|value|⌋, m = value / 10^e; engineering: e₃ = 3·⌊e/3⌋, m₃ = value / 10^e₃

The digits come from the shortest decimal representation that round-trips the input, so 0.000123 is reported as 1.23 × 10^-4 without floating-point noise.

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Unit	Required	Description
`value`	number		yes	Any number, e.g. 123400 or 0.000123. Range: ≥ -1e+300, ≤ 1e+300

Outputs

Output	Type	Description
`mantissa`	number	Significand with 1 ≤ \|m\| < 10 (0 for zero).
`exponent`	integer	Power of 10 such that value = m × 10^e; also the order of magnitude.
`scientific_notation`	string	e.g. '1.234 × 10^5'.
`e_notation`	string	Calculator/programming form, e.g. '1.234e5'.
`engineering_notation`	string	Exponent a multiple of 3 and mantissa between 1 and 999.999…, e.g. '123.4 × 10^3'.
`engineering_mantissa`	number	Mantissa of the engineering form.
`engineering_exponent`	integer	Exponent of the engineering form (…, −6, −3, 0, 3, 6, …).

Example

123400: {"value":123400} → {"mantissa":1.234,"exponent":5,"scientific_notation":"1.234 × 10^5","e_notation":"1.234e5","engineering_notation":"123.4 × 10^3","engineering_mantissa":123.4,"engineering_exponent":3}

0.000123: {"value":0.000123} → {"mantissa":1.23,"exponent":-4,"scientific_notation":"1.23 × 10^-4","e_notation":"1.23e-4","engineering_notation":"123 × 10^-6","engineering_mantissa":123,"engineering_exponent":-6}

GET https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/scientific-notation?value=123400

Machine access

API: GET https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/scientific-notation (query parameters) or POST with a JSON body {"inputs": {...}}
Schema: https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculators/scientific-notation · Markdown: https://tttkmbb.com/math/scientific-notation.md · JSON definition: https://tttkmbb.com/math/scientific-notation.json
MCP: server https://tttkmbb.com/mcp, tool run_calculator with calculator_id="scientific-notation"
OpenAPI operationId: convert_to_scientific_notation
Freshness: static. Authentication: none. Rate limit: fair use (see rate limits).

Sources

Wikipedia – Scientific notation (reference)
Wikipedia – Engineering notation (reference)
Wolfram MathWorld – Scientific Notation (reference)

FAQ

What is the difference between scientific and engineering notation?

Scientific notation keeps one digit before the decimal point; engineering notation uses exponents that are multiples of 3 so the number maps onto SI prefixes (10^3 = kilo, 10^-6 = micro).

How many digits are kept?

All significant digits of the input (up to 12 in the text forms); to shorten the mantissa, round the value first with the rounding calculator.

Related calculators

Rounding Calculator — Round to a number of significant figures before formatting.
Exponent Calculator — Evaluate powers of 10 and other bases.
Logarithm Calculator — log10 gives the exponent directly.