Question

Why do scientists and mathematicians sometimes you scientific notation as opposed to standard form?

Answer 1

Sample Response: The exponent indicates how large or small the number is. A positive exponent moves the decimal to the right, which creates a very large number. On the other hand, a negative exponent moves the decimal to the left, which creates a very small number.

Answer 2

The reason mathematicians and other scientists use scientific notation is when they are working with very large or very small numbers. Scientific notation is a system for writing and working with numbers that makes it much easier to deal with numbers that are very small or very large.

For example, which is easier to write on a test?

`3 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000` tons

or

`3*10^(39)` tons

The first one is in standard form while the second option is in scientific notation.

Hope this helps!