Well in large part I suspect it is because that is the way floating point numbers are represented logically (a fixed precision number with an exponent).
It's also a darn useful thing.
100000000001 is not obviously a different, larger, or smaller number than 1000000000001, whereas:
1.0000e+11 is clearly smaller (oops!) than 1.0000e+12
It may not be the way you're used to writing down numbers, but that doesn't make it inferior.
It's also a darn useful thing.
100000000001 is not obviously a different, larger, or smaller number than 1000000000001, whereas:
1.0000e+11 is clearly smaller (oops!) than 1.0000e+12
It may not be the way you're used to writing down numbers, but that doesn't make it inferior.