how many times less is 10^2 than 10^6? express your answer as scientific notation

To find how many times less \( 10^2 \) is than \( 10^6 \), we can divide \( 10^6 \) by \( 10^2 \):

\[ \frac{10^6}{10^2} = 10^{6-2} = 10^4 \]

Thus, \( 10^2 \) is \( 10^4 \) times less than \( 10^6 \).

In scientific notation, this is expressed as:

\[ 1.0 \times 10^4 \]

So, \( 10^2 \) is \( 1.0 \times 10^4 \) times less than \( 10^6 \).