Expressing numbers in scientific notation

Question

I assume that scientific discussion in Chinese uses scientific notation, such as 5×10¹². How would I read such a number aloud?

I looked at the rules for saying numbers, as well as the Wikipedia page it links to. The closest thing I could find were the large numbers and metric prefixes.

If I follow the large numbers, then I would guess 五兆, but I'm hoping there's a more general phrase like the way we say, "five times ten to the twelfth power" in English. I found that 乘幂 means exponentiation, so can I say 五倍十二乘幂的十?

There is a regional difference here -- 兆 is only 10^6 (million) in mainland China while 10^12 in Taiwan... — user58955, Oct 28 '14 at 09:09

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 28 '14 at 09:07

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五乘以十的十二次冪 Five times 10 to the 12.

edited Oct 28 '14 at 09:07

user58955

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answered Oct 28 '14 at 06:27

Chen Jiang

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '14 at 03:09

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OR "五乘以十的十二次方"

(Chinese StackExchange complained "Body must be at least 30 characters; you entered 14" Hence this useless filler...)

answered Nov 01 '14 at 03:09

SYK

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Expressing numbers in scientific notation

2 Answers2