Scientific Notation

Found this...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1949-8594.1923.tb07352.x/abstract

If I had to give an answer, I have to say the evolution took place due to digital representation (hand held calculators)

SE's link is good reading.....

An intermediate step might have been 1.2 x 10^9. This might have been for use in simpler text programs that don't support superscripts and subscripts.

that's how you would right it in an equation.......... this is shaking my cobweb collections loose............... spent quite a bit of time collecting those cobwebs.......

I believe it has something to do with the design of the infamous 8087 math coprocessor used on some (not all) first gen 8086 PC's. An advanced version of that chip is integrated in all later main processors. S.M.

If I recall from Fortran IV (it was a while ago), that would have been expressed as 0.12E09.

The E notation was used in 7 segment displays of calculators and having limited digits.

I believe this went back to early computer languages (FORTRAN) to distinguish numerical constants (6.03E23) from arithmetic operations(6.03*10**23)

When all else fails, I go back to basics.

Where do you put the batteries?

Far as I know, they're hybrid. The display is solar powered and the slide is manual.

Well-played! (I still use my Post Versa-Log II®.)

Dear Mr.EdWatts,

Refering to Posting No.10, by Mr.lyn, it is a SLIDE RULE. There is no Battery for this Slide Rule. There were many brands of Slide Rules and what you see in the picture is one type of slide rule.

About 50 years back, NO CALCULATORS and the Calculators came very popular and was in the reach of common man after 1975, with limited functions. After 1980, the Calculators have been developed in a very large way.

DHAYANANDHAN.S

Uhh...

...Never mind.

Thank you, Sheldon! LMAO

1.2E9 is called engineering notation. I think the HP35 handheld calculator was the first to use it.

SE: Nice site, but it is too early to have the "recent" changes I'm looking for. Recent being within the last 50 or so years.

Tornado: That's likely one of the steps, or maybe a double ** for exponentiation.

RAMConsult: But did we also have the notation 1.2 x 10E9? Might have been an intermediate step, but also seems superfluous.

Ed Watts: I still have my Post slide rule too, but no longer use it.

Re: Scientific Notation

I think you are confusing Scientific Notation with Engineering Notation.

Engineering notation will always be expressed as a number between 1 and 1000, or -1 to -1000 with a power that is a number that is a multiple of 3. (milli,mega,giga,etc.)

Scientific Notation can be a power of any integer between 1 and ten and a power of any integer.The "E" is there to avoid confusion between the two.

Then is S used for scientific notation, e.g. 1.2S8?

Not necessary. If no "E" it is usually scientific notation.

Sometimes,when the structure of the number makes the system self evident, the E will be omitted.When the exponent is negative,for instance,you know the system is Engineering units.Or if the exponent is a multiple of 3,and the whole number is greater than 10, it is Engineering units.

If the whole number is 10 or less,and the exponent is not a multiple of 3,it is Scientific notation.

Oh, goodie, a decision thicket....

And if the number is less than 10, and the exponent is a multiple of three, one flips a coin to decide whether it is scientific or engineering notation.

Same value either way.In that case it doesn't matter.

I started using 1.2E9 notation on my own in the late 1960s because it was alot faster to write than 1.2 x 10^9 . I don't know if I picked it up from Fortran or if it simply came to mind, but it was long before calculators.

Bill