What is the purpose of scientific notation?

Answer 1

Scientific notation is a way to express numbers that are either very small or very large. In traditional notation the first kind would have a lot of 0s between the decimal point and the first significant digit whereas the second kind would have a large number of trailing 0s or non-digits implying a spurious degree of accuracy. The need for scientific notation arose from advances in various branches of science: atomic particles in physics or chemistry, astronomical or cosmological distances, size of single animal cell. Nowadays, even non-scientific values such as population, national debts (of some countries) could usefully utilize scientific notation.

Numerically, it is to simplify very large or very small numbers.

For instance, instead of having to write 1,000,000,000 you can write 10 9, the 9 being a superscript - a number witten smaller and slightly above the the initial number- some display may not show it correctly

Answer 2

Scientific notation is a way to express numbers that are either very small or very large. In traditional notation the first kind would have a lot of 0s between the decimal point and the first significant digit whereas the second kind would have a large number of trailing 0s or non-digits implying a spurious degree of accuracy. The need for scientific notation arose from advances in various branches of science: atomic particles in physics or chemistry, astronomical or cosmological distances, size of single animal cell. Nowadays, even non-scientific values such as population, national debts (of some countries) could usefully utilize scientific notation.

Answer 3

Numerically, it is to simplify very large or very small numbers.

For instance, instead of having to write 1,000,000,000 you can write 10 9, the 9 being a superscript - a number witten smaller and slightly above the the initial number- some display may not show it correctly