Question

The two largest mammals on Earth are the Blue Whale and the African Elephant.
The adult male blue whale weighs about 170 tonnes, where 1 tonne is 2,000kg. That is 170,000 kg.
Which of the following correctly coverts the weight of the blue whale into scientific notation?

A. 170x 10^3 kg
B. 17x 10^4 kg
C. 1.7x 10^5 kg
D. 0.7 x 10^6 kg

Answer 1

Answer:

C. 1.7×10^5 kg

Step-by-step explanation:

to find a, take the number and move a decimal place to right one position

1)original number:170,000

2)new number:1.70000

now to find b,count how places to the right of the decimal.

new number: 1 7 0 0 0 0

decimal count: 1 2 3 4 5

there are 5 place to the right of the decimal place

building upon what we know above, we can now reconstruct the number into scientific notation.

1. Remember, the notation is : a ×10^b
2. a=1.7
3. b=5

now the whole thing:

1.7×10^5

now, check your work

10^5=100,000× 1.7= 170,000