In a scientific notation,
must be greater than or equal to 1 and less than 10.
What is scientific notation?
Using scientific notation, one can express very big or small quantities. When a number is multiplied by a power of 10 and falls between 1 and 10, the result is written in scientific notation. For instance, 6.5 * 10^8 is how 650,000,000 is expressed in scientific notation.
When a number is too big or too small to be stated in decimal form, it can be expressed using scientific notation instead of having to write out an awkwardly long string of digits.