What is the purpose of scientific notation?

The primary reason for converting numbers into scientific notation is to make calculations with unusually large or small numbers less cumbersome. Because zeros are no longer used to set the decimal point, all of the digits in a number in scientific notation are significant.

From experience... Scientific notation is helpful when discussing very large numbers. For example... when discussing atomic masses, the values are so small... that it is much easier to write in scientific notation that to write out all of the 0's that come after the decimal