Final answer:
To express a number in scientific notation, move the decimal point to get a new number from 1 up to but not including 10, then count the moved decimal places as the power of ten.
Step-by-step explanation:
Expressing numbers in scientific notation is a way to write large or small numbers compactly. To convert a number to scientific notation, you move the decimal point so that there is one non-zero digit to the left of the decimal point, and then you multiply by a power of ten that counts how many places the decimal point was moved.
For example, the number 56900 can be expressed as 5.69 × 10´, meaning the decimal point was moved 4 places to the left. Conversely, a small number like 0.000028 can be formatted as 2.8 × 10⁻µ, moving the decimal point 5 places to the right (which corresponds to the exponent being -5). Using the correct power of ten, numbers are easily expressed in a form that reflects their magnitude in a simplified fashion.