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Sorry for the terrible question, but how do you define E-3, which is used in the calculators to indicate that the first 3 decimals in the number are not displayed ?

0.000563 = 5.63E-3

I need to write in my thesis something like: "Please, pay attention that the values are shifted by 3 decimals".

thanks

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    `x.yzwE-3 = x.yzw`$\cdot 10^{-3}$.2011-06-13
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    @Theo Buehler I actually need to write it down in words. Something like: "Please, pay attention, the values are shifted".2011-06-13
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    Well, I'd say: "Please pay attention that the *decimal point* is shifted three digits to the left because of the decimal exponent $10^{-3}$", but I'm no native speaker. Out of curiosity: What kind of thesis are you writing that you can't assume familiarity with this on the part of your readers? I for one learned that in elementary school, maybe 3rd or 4th grade. By the way: your equality is wrong: `0.000563 = 5.63E-4`2011-06-13
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    @Theo Buehler Readers surely know what decimal point is, but they might not realize it by reading the values of the table without "10^-3", because I'm not appending it to all table values.2011-06-13
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    Instead of closing this answer, why doesn't one of the people voting to close actually, you know, answer it?2013-08-01
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    Dear @user1729 : The question is apparently "Is there some other way I can rewrite this sentence in my thesis?" It's simultaneously nonmathematical, will only help a single person ever, has no good answer, and is admitted by the OP to be a "terrible question."2013-08-01
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    @rschwieb It is about communicating maths. If I am interpreting it correctly, the OP wants to make it clear than when they are writing 5.3 they *mean* 0.0053. Which is not as uncommon as you might think.2013-08-01

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It depends on what you're writing about. It's probably easier to just write $5.63\times10^{-3}$ in the place of $0.00563$ in a math text. If you really don't want to write the $\times10^{-3}$ (for example, in a table), just say "please note that the values in this table represent the error(or whatever they represent) divided by $1000$."

If you're writing about something physical that has units (for example, distance) write: "Measurement is in millimeters" or "Measured in $\text{mm}$."