To express the number \( 0.0000115741 \) in scientific notation, we can rewrite it in the form \( a \times 10^n \), where \( 1 \leq a < 10 \) and \( n \) is an integer.
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Move the decimal point in \( 0.0000115741 \) to the right until it is in the range \( [1, 10) \). This requires moving the decimal point 5 places to the right, resulting in \( 1.15741 \).
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Each time we move the decimal to the right, we decrease the exponent of 10 by 1. Since we moved it 5 places to the right, we subtract 5 from the exponent.
This gives us: \[ 0.0000115741 = 1.15741 \times 10^{-5} \]
Thus, \( 0.0000115741 \) in scientific notation is \( 1.15741 \times 10^{-5} \).