Exponential Notation (Logarithm)
The short-hand notation of a very large or very small number expressed in power 10 is called exponential Notation. The mass of electron is 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 911g, this can be written by exponential notation as 9.11x10 -28 g. The number of atoms present in 1mole of elements is found to be 602,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 which can be written as 6.023x10 23 . In Exponential terms, 10 is called the base. The power to base is called exponent or logarithm. There are two methods of determining the exponents of 10. 1) When decimal point shifted towards right side, the exponent of 10 is always negative in such a case. Example: 0.00016 can be expressed as 1.6x10 -4 . 2) When decimal point shifted toward left side, the exponent of 10 is always positive in such a case. Example: 16000 can be expressed as 1.6x10 4 . In the expression, a x =y is called the logarithm of y to the base a, where a must be positive number other than one. In logarithm the base is us...