Question

Briefly describe scientific notation. how is it useful for writing large and small​ numbers? how is it useful for making​ approximations?

Answer 1

Scientific notation, also called pattern or notation in exponential form, is a way of writing numbers that accommodate values too large (100000000000) or small (0.00000000001) to be written in a conventional manner.

The use of this notation is based on powers of 104
Example:
Big numbers:

`100000000000 = 1 * 10 ^ {11}`
Small numbers:

`0.00000000001 = 1 * 10 ^(-11)`

However, in areas such as physics and chemistry, scientific notation is important to make approximations such as:
mass of a proton
mass of an electron and others.