If i was to write 261,000,000 in scientific notation i know i have to put the decimal to the front but i get confused would it be negative or positive

Farmers know that driving heavy equipment on wet soil compresses the soil and injures future crops. here are data on the "penetrability" of the same type of soil at two levels of compression. penetrability is a measure of how much resistance plant roots will meet when they try to grow through the soil. compressed soil 2.85 2.66 3 2.82 2.76 2.81 2.78 3.08 2.94 2.86 3.08 2.82 2.78 2.98 3.00 2.78 2.96 2.90 3.18 3.16 intermediate soil 3.17 3.37 3.1 3.40 3.38 3.14 3.18 3.26 2.96 3.02 3.54 3.36 3.18 3.12 3.86 2.92 3.46 3.44 3.62 4.26 use the data, omitting the high outlier, to give a 95% confidence interval for the decrease in penetrability of compressed soil relative to intermediate soil. compute degrees of freedom using the conservative method. interval: to