Numeracy · Guided Practice

Scientific Notation

11 questions with answers and video solutions. Try each one before revealing the answer.

1
Express 51 600 000
In scientific notation.

No hints on this one — its full written solution is with the answer.

2
Express 0.00007081
In standard form.

No hints on this one — its full written solution is with the answer.

3
Evaluate (4 ×\displaystyle \times 1014) ÷ (8 ×\displaystyle \times 106)
Express your answer in scientific notation.

No hints on this one — its full written solution is with the answer.

4
In the year 2015, there were estimated to be 7.34 ×\displaystyle \times 109 people and 3.04 ×\displaystyle \times 1012 trees in the world. Calculate the number of trees per person in 2015
Express your answer correct to 2 significant figures.

No hints on this one — its full written solution is with the answer.

5
The average adult has approximately 7.6 ×\displaystyle \times 106 white blood cells per millilitre of blood. On average, an adult has 5.2 litres of blood. Calculate the average number of white blood cells in an adult body
Express your answer in scientific notation, correct to 1 significant figure.

No hints on this one — its full written solution is with the answer.

6
2016 P2 Q2
2 Marks

A pollen sample weighs 12 grams and contains 1⋅5×109\displaystyle 1\cdot5\times10^{9} pollen grains.
Calculate the weight of one pollen grain in grams.
Give your answer in scientific notation.

7
2019 P2 Q4
2 Marks

A sesame seed weighs 3⋅6×10−6\displaystyle 3\cdot6\times10^{-6} kilograms.
The weight of a poppy seed is 8% of the weight of a sesame seed.
Calculate the weight of a poppy seed in kilograms.
Give your answer in scientific notation.

8
2021 P2 Q2
Light travels at 3 ×\displaystyle \times 108 metres per second. A star is 4.2 ×\displaystyle \times 1017 metres away from Earth.
Calculate the number of seconds it takes for light from this star to reach Earth.
Give your answer in scientific notation.

No hints on this one — its full written solution is with the answer.

9
2023 P2 Q2
3 Marks
The mass of a helium atom is 6.64 ×\displaystyle \times 10–24 grams. A flask contains 300 grams of helium.
Calculate the number of helium atoms in this flask.
Give your answer in scientific notation, correct to 3 significant figures.
10
2024 P2 Q2
2 Marks

An ant colony occupies an area of 250 hectares.
There is an average of 1.22×106\displaystyle 1.22 \times 10^6 ants per hectare.
Calculate the number of ants in the colony.
Give your answer in scientific notation.

11
2025 P2 Q3
2 Marks

The mass of one atom of gold is 3.27×10−22\displaystyle 3.27 \times 10^{-22} grams.
The mass of one atom of carbon is 6.1% of the mass of an atom of gold.
Calculate the mass of one atom of carbon.
Give your answer in scientific notation.

Keep practising

More scientific notation questions

New questions, modelled on past paper questions and checked against their marking instructions. Not reprints — you have not seen these before.

Practice questions courtesy of Maths.scot. Full written solutions are on his site — the links above go straight to them.

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