To find out how many gallons of paint will be in each container, we need to divide the total amount of paint, \( \frac{3}{4} \) gallons, by the number of containers, which is 3 (or \( \frac{1}{2} \)) gallon containers.
First, we need to determine how many \( \frac{1}{2} \) gallon containers are being used:
\[ \text{Number of containers} = 3 \]
Now, we divide the total amount of paint by the number of containers:
\[ \text{Amount of paint per container} = \frac{3}{4} \div 3 \]
This division can be simplified by multiplying by the reciprocal:
\[ \frac{3}{4} \div 3 = \frac{3}{4} \times \frac{1}{3} = \frac{3 \times 1}{4 \times 3} = \frac{3}{12} \]
Now we can simplify \( \frac{3}{12} \):
\[ \frac{3}{12} = \frac{1}{4} \]
Thus, each \( \frac{1}{2} \) gallon container will be filled with \( \frac{1}{4} \) gallons of paint.
Next, we need to convert \( \frac{1}{4} \) into scientific notation.
\[ \frac{1}{4} = 0.25 \]
In scientific notation, \( 0.25 \) can be represented as:
\[ 2.5 \times 10^{-1} \]
So, the amount of paint in each container, expressed in scientific notation, is:
\[ \boxed{2.5 \times 10^{-1}} \text{ gallons} \]