Final answer:
The student's question addressed scientific notation and whether the first number must be greater than or equal to 1 but less than 10; the answer is true.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student asked if in scientific notation, the first number must be greater than or equal to 1 but less than 10. The answer to this is true. Scientific notation is a system that expresses numbers in the form of N x 10n, where N (the coefficient) is a number that is greater than or equal to 1 and less than 10 (1 ≤ N < 10), and n is an integer that can be either positive or negative, representing the power of 10. This notation simplifies the manipulation of numbers with large or small magnitudes.