Hi I would like to know how to use scientific notation in excel.

Can anyone help?

I'll use the following as an example.

5.42 × 103 = 5,420

Thanks

brian

Hmm, confused. There's no difficulty entering this as either text or numbers...

Do you mean you want to enter numbers into columns A and B and have the result appear in col C? If so, then in Col C you type "=A*B" (without the quotes).

Hi skylark53, thanks for the reply.

Sorry I copy and pasted he last post and the format was lost. So...

5.42 × 103 = 5,420 should have been

5.42 x 10 (to the power of) 3 = 5,420

Any ideas?

Well, then it's "=a*b**3"

Or, if what you need is a superscript 3, then highlight the 3, go into format cells, font, then choose superscript.

Thanks again for the reply skylark53 but I think we are talking about two different things here.

It is not the format I am concerned about it is how to perform the calculation.

It's "=a*b**3".

It's very similar to ordinary algebraic (ro rather, Fortran) notation.

Scientists are from Mercury... ;}}

Sorry skylark53 you are loosing me here.

What I would use is...

5.42 x 10 x 10 x 1- = 5420 (10 to the power of 3)

Why do you use use ** twice ?

Hang in there!

** means 'to the power of'. Putting "=a*b**3" into column C makes Excel do the calculation (contents of A) times (contents of B to the power 3) and stick the result in column C. Try it...

I have to go about in 10 minutes but if you like, send me an email later and we can continue to talk lke aliens! ;}}

Excel 2007 will not let me enter two **

Maybe we can continue this on monday !

Thanks for helping out.

Sorry; try "^" instead of **

And don't forget the cell numbers, i.e. "=(a14*b14)^3