Using basic units from the SI system,
It is easier to make mistakes when working with such large numbers. Furthermore, in many cases, the numbers are known to only few significant digits so the trailing zeros are no more than place holders. That is why scientific notation is so useful.
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Yes, architects use scientific notation to do the calculation of the measurement of either very long/short (or both) objects. They use scientific notation to save time, writing out the whole term, such as 14324141240123.... or 50000000... Basic geometry is also applied to their careers since they need to learn how to measure the lengths of the shapes and lines! It's quite interesting that architects use math!
Significant figures is a way of trying to convey how accurately something is being measured. A very accurate scale may measure .001 grams, a bathroom scale may be only accurate to within 2 lbs. Exponential notation has nothing to do with measurement. It is just a choice on how to write a number, usually for some mathematical application. 243 = 35 this is exponential 'notation'. Scientific notation is a certain type of exponential notation in which the base must be 10. 243 = 2.43 x 102 that is scientific notation.
You can use kilometer, but end up with fairly large numbers, which are best written in scientific notation. It is quite possible to deal with those, but perhaps due to a lack of familiarity of the general public with scientific notation, light-years and parsecs are often used instead. When using these units, you end up with smaller numbers. For example, the distance to the nearest star (after the Sun) is about 4.2 light-years; each light-year is about 9.5 x 1012 km, that is a 13-digit number if you write it out.
• Scientific notation is used by the astronomers for their calculation of distance, speed, revolution of the planets around the sun. • The meteorologic department who have to calculate the changing weather. • Electrical engineers for their trigger operations which has ten thousand operations per second. • The players of chess games to see the number of all possible games. • Physicists use it to measure the distance between particles. • Geologists use it to measure the age of rocks.
This looks like the commonly used shortcut for scientific notation. 1e20 or 1e+20 is the same as 1 x 1020.