Answer the following.

Question

answer the following.

(a) An astronomer's infrared telescope is able to detect radiation with a wavelength of ×7.6810−5 meters.	Write this number in standard notation.
(b) The diameter of Mars at its equator is approximately 6790 kilometers.	. Write this number in scientific notation.

Answer 1

Hi Kimberly,

a) I think you mean 7.68 * 10^-5 meters. In standard notation, this is:

0.0000768

The idea is to go x decimal places to the left, where x represents the negative power in your exponent. For example 5 * 10⁸ is 0.00000005.

b) This is essentially the same process in reverse. 6790 is 6.79 * 1000, or:

6.79 * 10³

This time, you’re going to the right of the decimal place and stopping at 3. Another example 5*10^5=500000. The exponent is the number of zeros you would have. I hope this helps.