could someone help me with math?

Question

If a person is 66 years old, they will have been alive for more than 2,080,000,000 seconds. Write this last number in scientific notation.

 

 

Answer 1

a number written in scientific notation is written as a product of two numbers

one number is between 1 and 10 and the other number is a power of ten

one reason to write a number in scientific notation is to eliminate trailing zeroes and write the number in a physically shorter format

2,080,000,000

you can eliminate the last 7 trailing 0's

you must keep 208 in that order

put in the decimal point so that the number is between 1 and 10

2.08 is the first number

now you have to move the decimal point to the right the correct number of places so that you get back to the original number

the point has to be moved 9 places to the right to get back to the original number

10⁹ is the second number

2.08x10⁹

Answer 2

Hey Seth,

 

2.08 x 10⁹.  That's it.

 

Note: You always put decimal point after non-zero.