Way to represent really small and really big numbers EX: $45600 = 4.56 \times {10^4}$
in this equation the base is 4.56 and the exponent is 4
$0.0077 = 7.7 \times {10^{−3}}$
decimal numbers are written using a negative exponent on the 10
multiple the bases together and then add the exponents for multiplication, for divison divide the bases and then subtract the exponents.
$(2 \times {10^{12}})(4 \times {10^{7}}) = 8 \times {10^{19}}$
$(6.2 \times {10^{8}})\div(3.1 \times {10^{5}}) = 2 \times {10^{3}}$