Look up the following numbers: one trillion, one decillion, one googol. How big are they? You can type out the number or describe it in words.
Usually when we are working with very large numbers, like the size of planets, we don't want to keep writing large numbers out, so we use scientific notation. What are some other larger things that scientific notation could be useful for?
What about very small things, like the diameter of a piece of hair? What other small things could scientific notation be useful for?
One trillion is written as 1 x 10^12 or one trillion.
One decillion is written as 1 x 10^33 or one decillion.
One googol is written as 1 x 10^100 or one googol.
These numbers are very large.
Scientific notation can be useful for measuring very large distances, such as the distance between galaxies, or very small distances, such as the size of atoms. It can also be used to measure very large or small amounts of time, such as the age of the universe or the time it takes for light to travel a certain distance. It can also be used to measure very large or small amounts of energy, such as the energy released in a nuclear explosion or the energy of a single photon.