Scientific notationFind the coefficient
Name: Date:
Fill in the missing number. It must be between 1 and 10.
16100 = × 103
2510000000 = × 108
38900 = × 103
44600000 = × 106
5410 = × 102
6700000 = × 105
Scientific notation: coefficient worksheets
The coefficient is the front of a number in scientific notation — the part between 1 and 10. These free printable worksheets give the power of ten and ask for that coefficient, with an answer key.
Kid stuck on one? You don’t just get the sheet.
Scientific notation: coefficient
The answer key prints on a separate page.
What's on this sheet
To write 48000 as ___ × 10⁴, the coefficient is 4.8: the digits are the same, with the point placed just after the first one. Asking for the coefficient with the power already supplied isolates a real mistake — a child who writes 48 × 10⁴ has the exponent right and the coefficient wrong, and there is nowhere for that error to hide when the exponent is given.
Why this sheet works
The coefficient always lands between 1 and 10, so it carries exactly one digit before the point. A number like 6300 becomes 6.3, and 90000 becomes 9.0 — the zeros do not disappear, they are described by the power of ten instead. Reading the leading digits and dropping the point in front of them is the whole of the skill.
How this one works
One question from this sheet, worked through a step at a time.
6100
6100=▢ × 10▢
6100
610
61
6.1
6100=6.1 × 10³
- Scientific notation writes a number as something between 1 and 10, times a power of ten. The question is where the point has to sit for that.
- Move the point until exactly one non-zero digit is in front of it: 6.1. Count the places — that is 3.
- That gives 6.1, which is between 1 and 10 — so it is the coefficient. 6100 = 6.1 × 10³.