The speed of light is about 671,000,000 miles per hour. How will you write this number in scientific notation?
6.71 x 10^8 miles per hour
To write the speed of light, which is about 671,000,000 miles per hour, in scientific notation, we need to express it as a number between 1 and 10, multiplied by a power of 10.
To convert 671,000,000 into scientific notation, we can write it as 6.71 × 10^8 miles per hour.
To write the number in scientific notation, we need to express it as a value between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10.
The given speed of light is 671,000,000 miles per hour. To convert it to scientific notation, we need to move the decimal point so that there is one non-zero digit to the left of it. In this case, we can move the decimal point after the first digit, which is 6.71.
The next step is to determine the power of 10, or the exponent, that will multiply the 6.71 to get the original number. Since we moved the decimal point 8 places to the left, the exponent will be -8. Note that a negative exponent in the scientific notation represents a fraction.
Putting it all together, the speed of light in scientific notation is written as 6.71 x 10^(-8) miles per hour.