I was under the impression that I knew how to divide with scientific notation; I have gotten all of the other questions right. However I cannot understand what I am doing wrong with this problem. The problem is (3 times 10 to the negative fourth power) divided by (15 times 10 to the second power). I keep coming up with 1/5 times 10 to the negative sixth power. My book says the answer is 2 times 10 to the negative 7th power. If anyone could show me how this problem is worked out, that would be extremely helpful. I am at my wits end.
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Dividing Scientifc Notation
- Thread starter isiseth
- Start date
isiseth said:I was under the impression that I knew how to divide with scientific notation; I have gotten all of the other questions right. However I cannot understand what I am doing wrong with this problem. The problem is (3 times 10 to the negative fourth power) divided by (15 times 10 to the second power). I keep coming up with 1/5 times 10 to the negative sixth power. My book says the answer is 2 times 10 to the negative 7th power. If anyone could show me how this problem is worked out, that would be extremely helpful. I am at my wits end.
(1/5)*10[sup:2x42tmnj]-6[/sup:2x42tmnj] is NOT in scientific notation, because 1/5 is NOT a number that is between 1 and 10.
Remember that 1/5 is 0.2.
So...you have
0.2 * 10[sup:2x42tmnj]-6[/sup:2x42tmnj]
or,
2 * 10[sup:2x42tmnj]-1[/sup:2x42tmnj] * 10[sup:2x42tmnj]-6[/sup:2x42tmnj]
Now do you see where the answer "2 * 10[sup:2x42tmnj]-7[/sup:2x42tmnj]" comes from?