Quantities greater than 100 or less than 0.01 are usually expressed in the standard form of A 10 ⁿ, where A is a number, called the mantissa, less than 10, and n is a whole number called the exponent. A positive value of n means that the number is greater than unity, a negative value of n means that the number is less than unity. To convert a number into standard form, shift the decimal place until the portion on the left-hand side of the decimal point is between 1 and 10, and count the number of places that the point has been moved. This is the value of n. If the decimal point has had to be shifted to the left the sign of n is positive; if the decimal point had to be shifted to the right the sign of n is negative.

To convert numbers back from standard form, shift the decimal point n figures to the right if n is positive or to the left if n is negative.

Note in these examples that a space has been used instead of the more familiar comma for separating groups of three digits (thousands and thousandths). This is recommended engineering...