5e2

5e2 is a compact representation of a number using scientific notation in base-10, commonly used in mathematics, science, and computing. The expression 5e2 evaluates to 5 × 10^2, which equals 500. In this notation, the part before the e is the significand (or mantissa) and the integer after the e is the exponent of 10. The notation is case-insensitive, so 5E2 is equivalent to 5e2 in most contexts. Variants such as 5e-2 and 3.14e6 denote 0.05 and 3.14 × 10^6, respectively.

In programming and data contexts, 5e2 is commonly used to write floating-point literals without decimal points. In many languages, 5e2 is interpreted as a floating-point value, typically double precision, though specifics depend on the language. For example, Python evaluates 5e2 as 500.0, JavaScript as 500, and C/C++ as the double-precision literal 500.0 unless suffixed with f for a float.

Advantages of this notation include conciseness and clarity when expressing very large or very small numbers, especially in scientific code or data files. Limitations include potential ambiguity in reading or editing by humans and the general issues of floating-point arithmetic, such as rounding errors in more complex calculations. In data formats like JSON or CSV, scientific notation is often accepted for representing numeric values, including expressions like 5e2.

See also scientific notation; floating-point numbers; exponential notation.