to mu previous question "1 mile equals 1609 meter :express this in scientific notation" why cant the answer

Question

be 16.09 x 10 (to the second)

Answer 1

It is a simple notational convention. Scientific notation has only one digit to the left of the decimal, and by convention that digit is nonzero.

Sound arbitrary? It is. But that's the way it's done.

Answer 2

ratio=:

1:1609

In scientific notation this is:

1.609( because you want a number less than 10)

so it is: 1.609X10^3.

This is ^3 because you are moving the decimal point 3 places to the left to get a number less than 10.

Answer 3

It can, but the usual form is where the first number is between 1.0 and 10.0.