Scientific notation
Written in the form , exponent b is chosen such that the absolute value of a remains at least one but less than ten . Normal mathematics convention dictates a minus sign to precede the first of the decimal digits of a for a negative number; that of b for a number with absolute value between 0 and 1, e.g. minus one half is . There is no need to represent zero in normalized form, the digit 0 is sufficient. The normalized form allows easy comparison of two numbers of the same sign in a, as the exponent b gives the number's order of magnitude.