If you have a scientific calculator, and again if you don't I will encourage you to buy one -- they are less than $50 most places, you can do scientifc notation on your calculator. If you look around, somewhere on the calculator, there will be a button which says something like ``EXP'' or ``EEX'' or ``EE''. That button is for entering numbers in scientific notation.
On my HP calculator, the button is ``EEX'', and to enter a number like
, I type ``1.23 EEX 33'' into my calculator. I get
out something which reads ``1.23 E 33''. That ``E 33'' part stands for
.
On my friend Kevin's Casio calculator, the button is ``EXP'', and to enter
the same number ( ), I type ``1.23 EXP 33'' into the
calculator. I get back something which reads `` 
''. The small
``33'' in the upper right corner of the screen is the Casio's version of
.
All scientific calculators have some way of doing this, and all of them will
display something like ``1.23 EE 33'', ``1.23 E 33'', or `` '',
or something very similar. Whatever your calculator displays, that is it's
version of scientific notation.
Once you have the numbers you want in your calculator in scientific notation, of course you can do the usual multiplying, dividing, adding, subtracting, taking square roots, squaring, or whatever, just as you would for a number displayed ``normally''.