Precalculus: Mathematics for Calculus, 7th Edition

Published by Brooks Cole
ISBN 10: 1305071751
ISBN 13: 978-1-30507-175-9

Chapter 1 - Section 1.2 - Exponents and Radicals - 1.2 Exercises - Page 24: 97

Answer

$2.537 \times 10^{13}$

Work Step by Step

We need to write 4.3 light years into miles with the given information that 1 light year $\approx$ 5,900,000,000,000 mi. So lets first write these in scientific notation to simplify it. 4.3 light years already has it's decimal place where it needs to be, so we will move it 0 spaces meaning the scientific notation for that will be: $4.3 \times 10^0$ The miles per light year will need to move to the left 12 spaces. So that will be: $5.9 \times 10^{12}$ Now we just have to multiply them. To do so we multiply the first numbers. $5.9 \times 4.3 = 25.37$ And we add the exponents of 10. $10^{0+12} = 10^{12}$ So now we have $25.37 \times 10^{12}$ but that is not proper scientific notation. We now have to move the decimal place over one place to the left and adding one to our exponent. Giving us our final answer of: $2.537 \times 10^{13}$
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