Ten is a very powerful number! We learned how very large, and very small, numbers can be more easily expressed as powers of ten rather than writing out long strings of zeros. We we also discovered how quickly things became very large, or very small as the exponent changed.
How did scientists and engineers do their calculations quickly and accurately without electronic calculators and computers? They wrote numbers in scientific notation and used slide rules. Our Olive students learned how to do some simple multiplication problems on actual slide rules. You can find virtual slide rules online; one of the easiest to use is a simulated Pickett N909-ES slide rule on http://www.antiquark.com/sliderule/sim/n909es/virtual-n909-es.html. Why not give it a try?