used to denote powers of 10. Where n is positive, this indicates the number of zeros after the number, and where the n is negative, this indicates the number of decimal places before the number. As an example: 105 = 100,000 10−5 = 0.00001 The notation of mEn, known as E notation, is used in computer programming, spreadsheets and databases, but is not used in scientific papers. See also Power of two Power of three SI prefix Cosmic View, inspiration for the film Powers of Ten Exponentiation Philip and Phylis Morrison wrote a book called "Powers of Ten: A Book About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero" to accompany the video of Eames. Further reading Video Powers of Ten (1977). Nine-minute film. US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), made by Charles and Ray Eames. "An adventure in magnitudes. Starting at a picnic by the lakeside in Chicago, this film transports the viewer to the outer edges of the universe. Every ten seconds we view the starting point from ten times farther out until our own galaxy is visible only as a speck of light among many others. Returning to Earth with breathtaking speed, we move inward - into the hand of the sleeping picnicker - with ten times more magnification every two seconds. Our journey ends inside a proton of a carbon atom within a DNA molecule in a white blood cell." References Powers of ten Integer sequences Orders of magnitude