Polynomial help

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joannamartinez

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Feb 19, 2010
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I need help please. I do not know how to do this. The mass of Saturn is about 5.688*10^23 metric tons. The mass of the sun is about 1.998*10^27 metric tons. About how many times the mass of Saturn is the mass of the sun? Give the answer in scientific notation. The mass of the sun is about how many times the mass of Saturn. Round to the nearest thousandth as needed. Thank you.
 
The Sun is how many more times massive than Saturn. Just divide.

\(\displaystyle \frac{1.998\cdot 10^{27}}{5.688\cdot 10^{23}}\)

Just divide 1.998/5.688 and then multiply by 10,000

See, look at the powers of ten in the problem. Use the exponent laws. \(\displaystyle \frac{10^{27}}{10^{23}}=10^{4}\)

because 27-23=4. That's all there is to it. 10^4 = 10,000. That is why we multiply by 10,000 after 1.998/5.688

See?. It's just arithmetic.
 
Ok. I did the division and I came up with 3512.66 in the scientific notation. Is this correct? Please advise. Thank you.
 
I went back and reevaluated and I came up with the answer in scientific notation as 3.51266*10^3. Is this correct? Please advise. Thank you.
 
Yes, it is. Move the decimal 3 places to the right and you have 3512.66

That's all it is. Moving the decimal place the correct number of places. You could even write it as \(\displaystyle 35.1266\cdot 10^{2}\).

If we move it 2 places to the right, it is 3512.66. See now?.

Whatever, it's all the same thing.
 
joannamartinez said:
I went back and reevaluated and I came up with the answer in scientific notation as 3.51266*10^3. Is this correct? Please advise. Thank you.
Click to expand...

The answer for the first problem - considering the significant digits - should be 3.513 * 10^3

The answer for the second problem - answer correct to thousandth - should be 3512.658

However, all these depend on the expectation in the class.
 
The answer would be 3.513 *10^3 (rounded off). Thank you so much for showing me how to do this problem. I really appreciate it.
 
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