E notation with negative numbers

Question

I'm a bit confused with e notations and small negative numbers.
I understand that e means 10^exponent
like 6e5 is equal to 610^5 = 600000
and 6e-5 is equal to 610^-5 = 0.00006
But lately I found some configuration files that consist of numbers like:

1.215e-011

1.33e-002

7.20e-004

so how would I go with them? I understand that the sign shows the order of magnitude, if its positive or negative, but what about the number behind the sign? It starts with a zero. So is the zero ignored or is the number smaller than zero?

So what I would like to know is which would be the correct way if my example number is 6e-005:

Way 1: 6e-005 = 6 * -10^-5 = 0.00006

Way 2: 6e-005 = 6 * 10^-0.005 = 5.93131856794

which is the correct approach? or is there a third way? Thanks!

Answer 1

The format is padded with zeros to a fixed with of three digits, so "Way 1" is the correct interpretation.

Answer 2

Just ignore the leading zeros. 6e-005 == 6e-5.

They are sometimes used so that all numbers in a context have a fixed format.