Back to Standard Form

To read a number in scientific notation, move the decimal point the other way. 4.5 × 10^4 means 4.5 multiplied by ten, four times. Each multiplication by ten moves the decimal point one place to the right: 45, 450, 4500, 45000.

The digits stay the same and keep their order. Only the decimal point moves, and each empty place fills with a zero. After four moves to the right, 4.5 becomes 45000, which is the standard form of the number.

You can check your answer by counting digits. In standard form, the number of digits before the decimal point is one more than the exponent. In 4.5 × 10^4, the power is 10^4, so the standard form has five digits. 45000 has five digits.