The principal protein of muscle has a mass of 0.000000000000000001031 gram. Convert the following number to scientific notation in three significant figures.
1.03 x 10^-18 grams
To convert the given number to scientific notation, we need to move the decimal point so that there is only one nonzero digit to the left of the decimal point.
Given number: 0.000000000000000001031 gram
Since the given number is less than 1, we will move the decimal point to the right. For each place that we move the decimal point to the right, we decrease the exponent by 1.
To move the decimal point to the right, we count the number of zeros between the decimal point and the first nonzero digit. In this case, there are 18 zeros.
So, the given number in scientific notation would be:
1.031 × 10^(-18) gram