Final answer:
Scientific notation is a mathematical method used to represent very large or very small numbers more easily. It involves expressing numbers as a product of a decimal number between 1 and 10 and a power of 10. To convert to scientific notation, you move the decimal point to create a number between 1 and 10 and count the number of places you moved the decimal point to determine the power of 10.
Step-by-step explanation:
Scientific notation is a mathematical method used to represent very large or very small numbers more easily. It is a way of expressing numbers as a product of a decimal number between 1 and 10 and a power of 10. To convert a number to scientific notation, you need to move the decimal point to create a number between 1 and 10 and count the number of places you moved the decimal point to determine the power of 10. For example, to express the number 637.8 in scientific notation, you would move the decimal point one place to the left, resulting in 6.378, and the power of 10 would be 2 because the decimal point was moved two places to the left.