What is three thousandths in standard form?

First of all we need to write down 3 thousandths in decimal.

This is 0.003

To change this in to standard form we need to get the 3 to appear before the decimal point. So we need to move the decimal point 3 places to the right. This is the equivalent to multiplying the number by 1000.

We then need to show that this new number is 1000 times larger than our original number. So we write down " x 10-3 " which means "times one thousandth".

So, in standard form 0.003 = 3 x 10-3