The advantages of using exponential notation is that it is shorter, and easier to read. For example, if you didn't use exponential form, you would be writing something like: 4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4. Reading that would be very confusing because you have to count how many 4s there are. It is also a lot shorter to write 4 to the power of 8 instead of 4+4 eight times. I hope this helps! :)