scientific notation

ever heard of a calculator?

whats 1.08 times 10 to the negative third power

Firstly, this is not a scientific notation question.

10 to the negative third power = 1/10 to the positive third power (which is the same as 1/cube root of 10 )

1.08 * 1/cube root of 10 = 1.08 / 10^(1/3) = approx 0.50129

This is a scientific notation question.

Why wouldn't it be?

Also, 10 ^ -3 is 1/1000, so the answer would be 108 / 1000 or 0.108

Ok , a misunderstanding

You wrote
10 to the negative third power = 10^(-1/3) This is not scientific notations

you meant
10 to the power of negative three = 10^(-3) This is scientific notation

What you wrote was not scientific notation BUT what you meant was scientific notation.