Directions
When numbers get very large, as in bacterial growth, they get hard to handle. Instead of counting zeros all day, scientists use a handy method called scientific notation to make long numbers easier to work with.
Before you write numbers in scientific notation, you need to know a bit about exponents, specifically about powers of 10. Let’s take a look at 10 to the second power:
In 10², the 10 is the base. The base tells us what number we’ll be multiplying. In 10², 2 is the exponent or power that tells how many 10s to multiply.
Let's try 10³. 10 is the base and 3 is the exponent.
So 10³ = 10 × 10 × 10.