Step 1: Move the decimal point from its current position (the black dot) to a position immediately to the right of the first nonzero digit (the red dot).
0.02.38
Step 2: We moved the decimal point 2 spaces to the left. Therefore, the exponent on base 10 will be negative 2.Now we know that the:
Mantissa = 2.38
Exponent = -2
So, the solution is:
$$0.0238 = \color{blue}{ 2.38} \cdot 10^{ \color{red}{ -2 }}$$