Use your calculator to calculate the following products, and express your answer using powers of 10, and round it to 2 decimal places: 12-12 x 11

Answer 1

Following the correct order of operations, you should perform the multiplication first!

12 x 11 = 132

Once you get that answer, you can perform the multiplication part of the equation.

12 - 12 x 11 --> 12 - (132)

12 - 132 = -120

Our answer is negative one hundred and twenty! Now that we have the correct value, we need to format it correctly. Because the absolute value of the number is greater than one, we know the exponent will be positive. To express the number in "scientific notation" using powers of ten, we need to have only one number to the left of the decimal point. So we move the decimal point two places to the left, until the only number before it is 1.

Now it looks like this:

-1.20

We moved the decimal place two places so, the exponent for the ten is going to be TWO.

Now our number looks like this:

-1.20 x 10^2

Lastly, we need to round to two decimal places. Which, luckily,is what we already have! The 2 and the 0 after the decimal point count as those two decimal places. So! Our correct answer is:

-1.20 x 10^2