Question

What is scientific notation?

Answer 1

Scientific notation is the way that scientists easily handle very large numbers or very small numbers. For example, instead of writing 0.0000000056, we write 5.6 x 10 to the -9 power.

Answer 2

Scientific notation is basically a shortcut for writing numbers. Scientists use it all the time if they are writing numbers that are very large or very small. If you encounter numbers that have many zeros at the end, you can use scientific notation to save your time. When using scientific notation, you're allowed to simplify all the zeros that you have in the number by writing the number as a product of a number and a power of 10.