This article was reviewed by Grace Imson, MA. Grace Imson is a math teacher with over 40 years of teaching experience. Grace is currently a math instructor at the City College of San Francisco and was previously in the Math Department at Saint Louis University. She has taught math at the elementary, middle, high school, and college levels. She has an MA in Education, specializing in Administration and Supervision from Saint Louis University.
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Standard form, also known as scientific notation in the US, is a method of expressing very large or very small numbers. It's used in science and math as shorthand, rather than writing out the full number every time you use it. This form also makes doing calculations much easier than working with a number that could have multiple place values. If you handle numbers with many digits, either very large or very small ones, then converting them to standard form by following this process will help.