Have you ever wondered what kind of jobs use scientific notation to help them do their job? Well if you don’t, then I have three jobs that I think use scientific notation the most. Those three jobs are an astronomer, a biologist, and a geologist. An astronomer uses scientific notation by measuring objects in space. A biologist uses it by measuring and counting cells in living organisms and a geologist uses scientific notation by writing how long something has been around or how many of those objects are in the world.
The first job that uses scientific notation is an astronomer. In this job, people use astronomy by measuring objects in space such as planets, meteors, asteroids, stars, the sun, and other objects. Say you have Earth. Earth is a big planet that takes up very little space in the galaxy. But to us, it takes up a lot of space. So if astronomers want to measure the Earth, they’re not going to write the whole number because it’s too big. Instead, astronomers use scientific notation to write the big numbers, but in a small way. Earth’s mass is about 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg, but instead of writing the whole number, astronomers write it as 6×1024. It is just simpler and easier that way.
The next job that uses scientific notation is a biologist. Biologists study living organisms and their evolution, function, and growth. They use scientific notation by writing down the large numbers of animals as shown in the following example “Biologists predict that there are 9,000,000 undiscovered species in the oceans.” Biologists would write “9,000,000” as 9×106. There is also a type of job in biology called microbiology. Microbiologists study cells in living organisms. The number of cells in organisms can be very high such as studying how many cells are in a dog. Another example is the size of a cell which is very small and could be written as a very small number, such as studying how small a cell is under a microscope. Instead of writing it as a very small number, microbiologists write the number in scientific notation. They also use scientific notation by counting and measuring the presence of bacteria such as how much bacteria is in a sample of a person’s skin.
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The last job that I have is a geologist, which is a person that studies liquid and solid objects on Earth. “How does a geologist use scientific notation?” you may ask. Well, rocks are solid objects that have been on Earth for many years. Earth is even its own rock! Which means that geologists could use scientific notation such as after determining how old a rock could be. If a geologist finds out how old a rock is, it would be easier to put it into scientific notation. So let’s say one of the oldest rocks in the world are about 4,000,000,000 years old. As I said before, for geologists, it would be simpler to write the number in scientific notation which would be 4×109.
In conclusion, scientific notation has a lot to do with all of these jobs. But what do all of these jobs have in common other than that they all use scientific notation? What do they all share? Astronomers use scientific notation to help write the sizes of objects found in the solar system. Biologists use scientific notation to write down a large or small number while studying cells and different bacterias in living organisms. Lastly, geologists use scientific notation by writing how long something has been around in the world such as the age of rocks. Now you know a lot more about scientific notation. If you didn’t know how it’s used, now you understand that it’s something that is very useful and helps people a lot!
Bibliography
- https://www.teachastronomy.com/textbook/How-Science-Works/Scientific-Notation/
- https://serc.carleton.edu/quantskills/methods/quantlit/BigNumbers.html
- https://microchemlab.com/information/scientific-notation-and-significant-digits-microbio
- https://prezi.com/upbhcm2-4z_x/scientific-notation-biology/
- https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-role-of-mathematics-in-biology.html
- https://geology.com/articles/what-is-geology.shtml
- https://geology.com/
- https://www.livescience.com/43584-earth-oldest-rock-jack-hills-zircon.html
- https://prezi.com/2uprxq9qzlth/geology/
