Introduction
In the world, there are many jobs that use Scientific Notation. Scientific Notation is the simplifying of a very large or small number into a number multiplied by a power of ten. For example, to write 36,000 in scientific notation it would be written as 3.6 x 104.
Another example of a number in scientific notation is 5.7 x 10 – 5, which in standard form is 0.000057. Some of these jobs might need more or less complicated use of Scientific notation. One job that uses Scientific Notation is a Software Engineer. Some others are being a Veterinarian or an Architect. These jobs might need it more or less, but it is still necessary for the job.
Veterinarians
A Veterinarian is a person who takes care of animals, usually domestic or tamed ones. They will give the animal shots it needs and take care of it if it is sick or hurt. As a veterinarian, or vet, needs to give animals shots or do surgeries on an animal, which can be very little, it is sometimes better for the vet to write the number in scientific notation. For example, if a vet was treating a small, squirmy hamster and needed to give it medicine, the vet might use scientific notation for the dose.
A hamster, being relatively tiny, needs a very small dose, which will probably be a decimal. So the hamster needs the dose in a very small number, which the vet will write in scientific notation to measure. Like if the hamster needed 0.0009 milliliters (mL) of a certain medicine, the vet would write down the expression 9 x 10 – 4.
Architects
Imagine a person building a new apartment for their city. They have plenty of construction workers to build it, but no one has the slightest idea of what to build. To design the building, they need an architect. An architect is a person that plans and designs buildings. They are crucial when building anything, as they are some of the only people that know how to design buildings.
Since buildings can be quite big, like in the case of a skyscraper, and it is best to write the precise measurements in scientific notation. So if a building was to be 1,304 feet tall, the architect might write that instead as 1.304 x 103 on the plan. Then if the building was a circle, than they would need a diameter measurement. If the measurement for the diameter was 242.682408 feet then the architect would probably write the diameter as 2.42682408 x 102.
Software Engineers
Another job that uses scientific notation is the job of being a Software Engineer. These people work on radar and such. When using lasers to measure the distances between the radar and other objects, the machines use units of time smaller than milliseconds. This means, that in the code that Software Engineers write to control the machines use extremely small numbers that are best written in scientific notation.
Sometimes the machines convert the decimals incorrectly, so they have to be very careful with the code. For example, if a machine said that an object was 0.000000076 seconds away, and the machine cannot write it in nanoseconds, it is best to type the number into the lines of code as 7.6 x 10 – 8 instead. Software Engineers can also type in something like 1e8 to convert all the numbers of seconds in the code to a number of nanoseconds instead.
Conclusion
The jobs of being Veterinarians, Architects, and Software Engineers use scientific notation, whether converting large or small numbers. They are not the only jobs that use it, but they still use it many times during the course of the job. It may be more complicated in some compared to others. Some of the jobs might use it on a daily basis while some do not. Some use it more, some use it less, but in every single one of these jobs the use of scientific notation is required at some point to do something, may it be giving something to an animal, building an apartment building, or measuring the distance from one object to another in nanoseconds.
References
- Scientific notation in archaeology and palaeoanthropology: a critical review
- High-Throughput Screening Scientific Data Repository for COVID-19 Drug Discovery
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- Stochastic Equations and Flows of Diffeomorphisms
- Comparison of Q-PCR dilution series data analysis methods for bacterial quantification with 8 commercial mastermixes
- Review of Software Solutions to the Solar Wind Origin Problem For Genesis Capsule Ground Stellar Telescope Observations
- Dressing charges in diffeomorphism invariant theories
- Platypus: An Integrated Programming Library and Execution Environment for Sensor Networks