Any number that is very large, or very small (near zero). For example, the mass of the Sun in kilograms (large), the distance to the M31 galaxy in meters (large), or the mass of the electron in kilograms (small).
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When talking about the number of miles to other stars, it is best to use scientific notation. Example: 2.38 x 1014 looks better than 238000000000000.
You best use scientific notation for such large numbers.
It's best to convert those numbers from scientific notation to normal notation; that makes it easy to add them. After adding them, you can convert back to scientific notation if you want. Another option is to keep the numbers in scientific notation, but to convert them so that both have the same exponent.
Very large or very small ones.
Best illustrated with examples (scientific notation on the right): 1) 24578 = 2.4578x104 2) 0.00000345 = 3.45x10-6 3) 2.313 = 2.313x100 4) -49 = -4.9x101 and so on. =============================