Most calculators and many computer programs present very large and very small results in scientific notation. Because superscripted exponents like 1011 cannot always be conveniently displayed, the letter E or e is often used to represent times ten raised to the power of (which would be written as × 10b) and is followed by the value of the exponent; in other words, for any two real numbers a and b, the usage of aEb would indicate a value of a × 10b. Note that in this usage the character e is not related to the mathematical constant e or the exponential function exp() (a confusion that is less likely with capital E); and though it stands for exponent, the notation is usually referred to as (scientific) E notation or (scientific) e notation, rather than (scientific) exponential notation (though the latter also occurs). The use of this notation is not encouraged in publications.【翻译：大多数计算器及计算机程序用科学记数法显示非常大和非常小的结果。

因为指数上标（例如1011）在屏幕上显示不方便，字母E或e通常是用来代表的十次幂（写作“×10b”），E或e之后的数字是它的指数；换句话说，任何两实数a和b（b应为整数），“aEb”所表示的值是a × 10b。

注意，这种用法中字母e不是数学常数e，也不是指数函数exp()（采用用大写字母E显示可以更大程度地避免误解）；尽管它也表示指数，但这个符号通常被称为（科学记数法）E或e符号，而不是指数中的底数符号（尽管后者也会出现）。

在正式的出版物中尽量不要使用这种显示方法。

】注意科学记数法中的e或E与数学常数e或函数exp()没有关系。

这种写法是因为一些计算机程序中不方便写上标而产生的，在正式出版物中不应当使用这种写法。

我国国家标准中科学记数法均用a ×10b的形式表示，而不是aEb（参见GB3101-1993，GBT15835-2011，GBT8170-2008）。