Final answer:
Scientific notation is a convenient way to represent very large or very small numbers. It uses a coefficient and a power of ten to express these numbers in a more compact form.
Step-by-step explanation:
Scientific notation is a way to express very large or very small numbers by using a coefficient (a number between 1 and 10) and a power of ten.
Using scientific notation makes it easier to work with these numbers because it allows us to represent them in a more compact and understandable form. For example, instead of writing 150,000,000,000 meters, we can write 1.5 × 1011 meters.
This notation saves space and makes calculations involving large or small numbers more manageable.