Why do we use scientific notation, and what are the parts of an expression written in scientific notation?

Question

anonymous · Answer

it allows us to display really big or really small numbers in a shorter form

dan815 · Answer

so we can express really big and small numbers in less space

anonymous · Answer

a couple that comes to mind would be speed of light and Avogadro number

mertsj · Answer

Scientific notation is a way of writing really huge, or really tiny, numbers that saves time and space and ink, etc. For example, the World Book Encyclopedia lists the Earth's mass as

6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms.

Why write such an unwieldy number when you can, instead, write

6.0 x 1024 kg.

anonymous · Answer

10^24
just clarifying

anonymous · Answer

thank you :)