Scientific notation is a way of expressing numbers that are too large or too small to be conveniently written in decimal form, since to do so would require writing out an inconveniently long string of digits. It is a form of presenting very large numbers or very small numbers in a simpler form. In scientific notation, a number is written as a product of a number between 1 and 10 and a power of 10. For example, the number 230000000000 can be written as 2.3 x 10^11. The exponent is positive if the number is very large and it is negative if the number is very small. Scientific notation is commonly used by scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, in part because it can simplify certain arithmetic operations. It ensures accuracy and reduces the possibility of error when using very small or very large numbers.