Jamie used a microscope to measure the diameter of a hair. She found that the diameter of the hair was 0.000072 meter. How is this number written in scientific notation?
I know the answer is 7.2 times 10 exponent -5 but can someone tell me the steps please?
what is the answer
Sure! To write the number 0.000072 in scientific notation, you need to convert it into a product of a number between 1 and 10 and a power of 10. Here's how you can do it:
Step 1: Start with the given number, which is 0.000072.
Step 2: Count the number of decimal places from the first non-zero digit (7) to the end of the number. In this case, there are 5 decimal places (0.000072).
Step 3: Rewrite the number by moving the decimal point to the right until there is only one non-zero digit to the left of the decimal point. In this case, move the decimal point 5 places to the right, resulting in the number 7.2.
Step 4: Rewrite the number in the form of a multiplication, where the first factor is the number obtained in Step 3 (7.2 in this case), and the second factor is 10 raised to the power of the number of decimal places moved in the opposite direction (5 in this case).
Step 5: Combine the first factor and the second factor, which gives us 7.2 x 10^(-5).
Therefore, the number 0.000072 in scientific notation is 7.2 x 10^(-5).
start with 7.2
Since 10^0, that is just
7.2x10^0
Now, lowering the power of 10 moves the decimal place to the left, so
7.2x10^0 = 7.2
7.2x10^-1 = 0.72
7.2x10^-2 = 0.072
and so on
The number of leading zeroes after the decimal point is 1 less than the negative power of 10.