Here's how we arrive at that:

1. Identify the decimal point: Even though it's not written, it's understood to be at the end of the number: 9461000000000.

2. Move the decimal point to the left until you have a number between 1 and 10. In this case, we move it 12 places to the left, resulting in 9.461.

3. Count the number of places you moved the decimal point. This number becomes the exponent of 10.

4. Combine the new number and the exponent of 10. This gives us 9.461 x 10¹².