Scientific notation is a convenient and widely used way to express numbers that are very large or very small in Python. It is commonly used in scientific and engineering applications where dealing with large or small numbers is prevalent. The use of Python’s scientific notation involves understanding the exponent, mantissa, floating-point numbers, and the math.pow() function. Exponent represents the power to which the base (10) is raised, the mantissa is the significant digits of the number, floating-point numbers are numbers with a decimal point, and the math.pow() function calculates the power of a number.
Scientific Notation in Python
Scientific notation, also known as exponential notation, is a way of representing very large or very small numbers using a power of ten. For instance, the number 602,214,129,000,000,000,000,000 can be written in scientific notation as 6.02214129 × 1023.
In Python, scientific notation is created using the e character. For example, the following expressions are all equivalent:
6.02214129e23
6.02214129 * 10**23
6.02214129E23
Best practices for using scientific notation in Python
- Use scientific notation to improve the readability of your code. For example, the following code is much more readable when written in scientific notation:
distance_to_sun = 149597870700
Becomes:
distance_to_sun = 1.495978707 × 10<sup>11</sup>
- Use scientific notation to avoid overflow or underflow errors. For example, the following code will result in an overflow error:
population_of_earth = 7900000000
While the following code will not:
population_of_earth = 7.9 × 10<sup>9</sup>
- Use scientific notation to make your code more efficient. For example, the following code is more efficient than the previous code because it does not require Python to perform as many calculations:
distance_to_sun = 1.495978707 × 10<sup>11</sup>
- Do not use scientific notation for numbers that are not very large or very small. For example, the following code is not necessary:
temperature = 25
Becomes:
temperature = 25.0
Formatting scientific notation
Python provides two ways to format scientific notation:
- Using the f-string format specifier: The f-string format specifier allows you to format numbers in a variety of ways, including scientific notation. To format a number in scientific notation using the f-string format specifier, use the following syntax:
{number:.ne}
where:
numberis the number you want to format.nis the number of significant figures you want to display.eis the exponent character.
For example, the following code formats the number 1234567890123456789 in scientific notation with two significant figures:
>>> print(f"{1234567890123456789:.2e}")
1.23e+18
- Using the format() method: The format() method can also be used to format numbers in scientific notation. To format a number in scientific notation using the format() method, use the following syntax:
number.format("e")
where:
numberis the number you want to format.
For example, the following code formats the number 1234567890123456789 in scientific notation:
>>> print("{:.2e}".format(1234567890123456789))
1.23e+18
Question 1:
How can scientific notation be represented in Python?
Answer:
Python uses the letter “e” to represent scientific notation, separating the mantissa and exponent by the exponent sign. The mantissa is the significant digits of the number, while the exponent specifies the power of 10 by which the mantissa is multiplied.
Question 2:
What operations can be performed on numbers in scientific notation in Python?
Answer:
Arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and modulo) can be performed on numbers in scientific notation in Python just as with regular numbers. The operations are applied to the mantissas and exponents separately, following the rules of exponential arithmetic.
Question 3:
How can scientific notation be converted to and from regular notation in Python?
Answer:
Python provides the “math.log10()” function to convert a number from scientific notation to regular notation by calculating the exponent, and the “math.pow()” function to convert from regular notation to scientific notation by specifying the mantissa and exponent.
Alright folks, that’s all there is to know about scientific notation in Python. Thanks for sticking with me until the end! If you have any other Python-related questions, feel free to check out my other articles. I’ll be here, waiting for you to drop by again. Until then, keep on coding and exploring the fascinating world of scientific notation!