Purely a matter of convenience. 'x' is an acceptable character that means "multiplied by",
and it appears on the keyboard, whereas the regular multiplication sign doesn't.
Well . . . to be perfectly honest, we don't even know what a "regular multiplication sign" is.
========================================
Another contributor agreed:
I was just going to ask that, what is a regular multiplication sign? For 50 years I have been using x
I think he means when he says regular multiplication sign he means the dot that is used for algebra because x is a variable.
P.S. I just learned about scientific notation and asked my teacher the same question. She didn't know.
To write this number in scientific notation, you place the number of times the decimal is moved to the left as the exponent. 238857 miles, or 238,857 miles is written in scientific notation as 2.38857 X 105 miles.
There is only one associative property for multiplication: there is not a separate "regular" version.
5.4 × 104 written in regular notation is 54,000
Multiplying numbers in scientific notation is easier when the numbers are very, very large or very, very small. Multiplying 0.000000000385 x 0.0000000474 is a pain. Multiplying 3.85 x 10-10 x 4.74 x 10-8 is not.
7.893 × 1011 written in regular notation is 789,300,000,000
8.71 × 104 written in regular notation is 87,100.
To write this number in scientific notation, you place the number of times the decimal is moved to the left as the exponent. 238857 miles, or 238,857 miles is written in scientific notation as 2.38857 X 105 miles.
376000000000 in scientific notation is 3.76 × 1011Standard notation is 376,000,000,000Scientific notation (also called standard form or exponential notation) is a way of writing numbers that accommodates values too large or small to be conveniently written in standard decimal notation.
Scientific Notation 1.125899907 x 10 to the 15th Regular number: 1125899907000000
An example of doing this is here: 25,000 = 2.5 x 10 squared 4
3.25 × 10-6 written in regular notation is: 0.00000325
5.8787 x 1012 miles 5,878,700,000,000 miles
981,192,800 is how it is in regular form. Scientific notation is 9.811928 * 10 to the 8th power.
There is only one associative property for multiplication: there is not a separate "regular" version.
4.5 x 108 is 450,000,000 in regular notation.
5.4 × 104 written in regular notation is 54,000
1400 ft2/1 x 1m2/3.28 ft2 Cancel ft2 You're left with 1400 m2/3.28 Answer: 4.3x102m2 (scientific notation) 426.83 m2 (regular method) I recommend using scientific notation as your answer, because that is better stated