Needs to simplify this problem

Question

A jet fighter is capable of reaching speeds up to 1.5 x 10 exponent 3 miles per hour. A typical passenager plane can reach speeds of approximately 5.0 x 10 exponent 2 miles per hour. About how many times faster can the jet fighter travel per hour than the typical passsenager plane?

Answer 1

Latoya (WyzAnt tells me this forum is intended to help students find tutors, not for tutors to do all the homework for students),

You should be learning scientific notation.   It represents numbers as n.nnn *10w  with the first n between 1 and 9 and the power of 10 (the w) as needed to move the decimal point to the correct position in the actual number.  It’s not WyzAnt, but see—

     http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/scientific-notation.html

So, the problem says a jet fighter can reach speeds of 1500 mph and a passenger plan can reach speeds of 500 mph.  So, how many times faster is that?

Once you learn to evaluate  1.5*10³ / 5*10², this will be a snap.

Best wishes!

 

Answer 2

This is solved by division. Another way of asking this problem is "What number times the passenger plane speed will equal the jet fighter speed?" As such, all you have to do is divide the jet fighter's speed by the passenger plane's speed, and you'll get your answer. So,

 

(1.5*10³)/(5.0*10²)=3

 

The jet fighter travels 3 times faster than the typical passenger plane.

 

To check, multiple 3 times the passenger plane speed and it should equal the jet fighter's speed.

 

(5.0*10²)*3=(1.5*10³)