235,000,000,000
= 2.35 X 1011
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You can count decimal places from the right to the left until you leave one whole number and the count becomes the exponent. Or you can count the groups of numbers ( ones, hundreds, thousands and the like ) and multiply by three. As above there are four groups of numbers multiplied by 3 = 12, but since you must stop to the right of the first whole number you subtract one to get your exponent.
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Write the mantissa as a negative number.
Scientific notation lets us express a large or a small number without having to write a lot of zeros before or after it. Try writing out 3 x 10^9000 without scientific notation.
It is: 3.56*10^8 km in scientific notation
Such small numbers aren't usually expressed in scientific notation but it is: 1.84*101
When numbers are very big or very small. For example, it's quicker to write 109 instead of 1,000,000,000