FTCE Mathematice Grade 5-9 Practice Test

To express the number 0.0036 in scientific notation, we need to rewrite it in the form of \( a \times 10^n \), where \( 1 \leq a < 10 \) and \( n \) is an integer.

Starting with 0.0036, we first move the decimal point to the right until we have a number between 1 and 10. In this case, we move the decimal point three places to the right to obtain 3.6. This gives us the coefficient \( a = 3.6 \).

Next, we need to account for the movement of the decimal in terms of powers of 10. Since we moved the decimal 3 places to the right, we express this movement as \( 10^{-3} \). Thus, we combine \( a \) with this power of 10 to write the number as \( 3.6 \times 10^{-3} \).

This reasoning leads us to conclude that the correct expression for 0.0036 in scientific notation is \( 3.6 \times 10^{-3} \), confirming that this option is indeed the correct choice.