When the density is either a very large number or a very small number. I would say over a thosand or below a thousandth. With density, though you may be able to adjust the magnitude of the result by changing the units of measurement. For example, a density that is too small a number in kg per cc might be ok when expressed as grams per cc. And if not, you could try grams per litre or milligrams per litre or even micrograms per litre. Can't do that with specific gravity, though.
scientific notation
Scientific Notation or Standard Notation or (not USA) Standard Form.
Scientific notation
62.605 x 10 = 626.05. The scientific notation of 626.05 is: 6.260500e+2
Scientific notation and standard notations are the same in most of the wolrd.
The advantage of expressing numbers in scientific notation is that they are more compact.
When numbers are tremendously large or small.
Scientific notation
Less digits are needed for very large numbers
Scientific notation is just a short hand way of expressing gigantic numbers like 1,300,000 or incredibly small numbers like 0.0000000000045. Also known as exponential form, scientific notation has been one of the oldest mathematical approaches. It is favored by many practitioner. If numbers are too big or too small to be simply calculated, people refer to scientific notation to handle these circumstances. This method is used by engineers, mathematicians, scientists. An example of scientific notation is 1.3 ×106 which is just a different way of expressing the standard notation of the number 1,300,000. Standard notation is the normal way of writing numbers.
8.73E4, scientific notation involves a number from 1 to 9 and the appropriate exponernt of ten represented by 'E". the exponent can be positive or negative.
Scientific Notation is a way of expressing a number as a value between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10. So, 0.0763 = 7.63 x 10-2