If you simplify this to dimensions that we know are used to find the area of a simple shape, we can see all is needed is a conversion of feet to meters. Area = length x width, so if we say that 2,500 sq ft = 50 feet long x 50 feet wide, then lets just find out what 50 feet equals in meters. 1 foot = 0.3048 meters. So, if we multiply both sides by 50, then 50 feet = 15.24 meters. To find the area of the house in meters, then we just substitute in the metric dimensions:
Area in sq meters = 15.24 meters long x 15.24 meters wide = 232.2576 sq m.
Scientific notation means that we start with a number that is less than 10 but greater than or equal to 1, and multiply that by a power (exponent) of 10. If we want the answer to "look" less than 10, then we'd want it to be 2.32 x 10n. What did we divide by to get 2.32 from 232? We moved the decimal two places so we divided by 100, or 102. So, we multiply by 102. Thus, the final answer would be 2.32 x 102; or you could be more precise and write 2.322576 x 102.
A good resource for scientific notation: nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/textbook/scinot.html
