I need help with a word problem for my homework.

Question

There are about 954,930 air bubbles in 1 cubic centimeter of icecream. There are about 946 cubic centimeters in 1 quart. Use order of Magnitude to find the approximate number of air bubbles in 1 quart of icecream.

 

 

How exactly would i solve the word problem? We are doing exponents, and im really confused about how to solve it as a word problem like that. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

When they say "order of Magnitude" they usually mean you can approximate the numbers to the nearest power of 10.  

 

So 954930 ~ 1000000 = 1E6 or 1 x 10⁶

 

946 ~ 1000 = 1E3 or 1 x 10³

 

So number of bubbles in 1 quart of ice cream ~ 

 

(1 x 10⁶ bubbles / cubic centimeter) * (1 x 10³ cubic centimeters / quart) 

 

= 1 x 10⁹ bubbles / quart