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Section 4.3 Scientific Notation Reminder
When Excel calculates very small probabilities, it often shows the result in
scientific notation.
Suppose you use Excel to calculate a probability and it gives the output: 4.7E-08.
This means:
\begin{equation*}
4.7\times 10^{-8}=0.000000047
\end{equation*}
So the probability is
\(0.000000047\text{,}\) which is very small!
Exercise 4.3.1.
Convert each probability from Excel’s scientific notation into standard decimal form:
(a)
Excel outputs 2.3E-05. Write this probability as a decimal.
(b)
Excel outputs 7.1E-04. Write this probability as a decimal.
(c)
Excel outputs 9.6E-07. Write this probability as a decimal.
(d)
Excel outputs 1.2E-02. Write this probability as a decimal.
