Meg lives in indianapolis and wants to visit her mom in lima. she has been meaning to go to a chiropractor in dayton, so she is wondering whether it makes sense to stop there on the way. dayton is 165 miles east of indianapolis, lima is due north of dayton, indianapolis is 173 miles away from lima, and there are straight roads connecting all three cities.
how many more miles would meg drive if she stopped in dayton first than if she drove directly to lima?

the largest number of the four options is 1.8 x 10-2

you have it in scientific notation.

1.80 x 10-6   = 0.00000180

1.80 x 10-4   = 0.000180 (bigger, or "less small", than the former one)

so

1.8 x 10-2       = 0.0180. as you see. the "less small", or the biggest one of them all.

as you have negative exponent, it means you are dividing 1.8 by 100 (i.e. moving the dot towards left, two times).

if you had positive exponent for the scientific notation, power of tenths, you would be multiplying times 100 (moving the dot towards right) as below:

1.8 x (10)2 = 180

so. if you have negative exponent in scientific notation, move the dot toward left. if it is positive, toward right as many times the exponent tells you.