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A standardized way of writing very large numbers allows them to be easily sorted in increasing order, and one can get a good idea of how much larger a number is than another one. To compare numbers in scientific notation, say 5×10 4 and 2×10 5 , compare the exponents first, in this case 5 > 4, so 2×10 5 > 5×10 4 .
For very large values, the text is generally shorter than a decimal numeric representation although longer than scientific notation. Two naming scales for large numbers have been used in English and other European languages since the early modern era: the long and short scales.
The following table lists the names of small numbers used in the long and short scales, along with the power of 10, engineering notation, and International System of Units (SI) symbols and prefixes. [1] [page needed] [2] [page needed] [3] [page needed] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Empty numbers are sometimes made up, with obvious meaning: "squillions" is obviously an empty, but very large, number; a "squintillionth" would be a very small number. Some empty numbers may be modified by actual numbers, such as "four zillion", and are used for jest, exaggeration, or to relate abstractly to actual numbers.
Unfortunately, this leads to ambiguity. The number 1 230 400 is usually read to have five significant figures: 1, 2, 3, 0, and 4, the final two zeroes serving only as placeholders and adding no precision. The same number, however, would be used if the last two digits were also measured precisely and found to equal 0 – seven significant figures.
Scientific notation: A method for writing very small and very large numbers using powers of 10. When used in science, such a number also conveys the precision of measurement using significant figures.
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The English language has a number of words that denote specific or approximate quantities that are themselves not numbers. [1] Along with numerals, and special-purpose words like some, any, much, more, every, and all, they are quantifiers. Quantifiers are a kind of determiner and occur in many constructions with other determiners, like articles ...