They don't usually.
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The uses of scientific notation in chemistry are to compute very large or very small numbers.
It is not. "Scientific notation" uses a base of 10. The correct notation would be 1.251 x 10^8
Scientific notation gives a compact notation, which is especially useful for writing down - and doing calculations with - very large, and very small, numbers.
The practical uses of scientific notation are to compute very large or very small numbers.
Because it uses fewer digits as for example 9,000,000,000,000,000 in scientific notation is 9.0*10^15