scientific notation

Question

The Atlantic Ocean region contains approximately 2×1016 gallons of water. Lake Ontario has approximately 8,000,000,000 gallons of water. What percent of water does Lake Ontario contain of the water in the Atlantic Ocean?

Answer 1

Justin,

This is going to be a VERY small percentage... 8 x 10⁹ gallons compared to 2 x 10¹⁶ gallons.

 

To calculate the percent of Lake Ontario water volume to that of the Atlantic, we divide 8 x 10⁹ by 2 x 10¹⁶, and then convert it to a percent.

 

So after dividing we get, 4 x 10^-7, which is equivalent to 4 x 10^-5 percent, or 0.00004%.

 

I hope this helps!