This is meant to be simple, but for some reason I'm not getting the right answer.
Question is: Perhaps the most famous horse race ever in the United States was the 1938 race between two thoroughbreds, War Admiral and Seabiscuit, both of whom stood about 15 hands high. Seabiscuit won the race. The length unit 'hand', used to measure horsesm is exactly 4 inches. How tall are both horses in centimeters.
So I thought:
Convert HANDS --> FEET ---> CM
So 1 hand = 4 in
initial units x desired units/initial units = desired units.
15 hands x 4 in / 1 hand = 60 inches
Seabiscuit is 60 inches tall
1 inch = 2.54 cm
60 inches x 2.54 / 1 in = 152.4 cm
Seabiscuit is 152.4 cm tall.
The answer to this problem in the back of the book is 1.5 x 10^2 cm. I've tried it over and over and it doesn't make sense to me.
I meant
HANDS ---> INCHES --> CM
AHH they are rounding! I feel silly.
15 hands x (4"/hand) x (2.5 cm/1") =152.4 cm.
The number of significant figures may be the problem.
15 hands is two digits; therefore, 152.4 cm would round to 1.5E2 cm.
It appears that you have made a calculation error in converting inches to centimeters. Let me help you correct it.
You correctly converted 15 hands to inches by multiplying by 4: 15 hands x 4 in/hand = 60 inches. So far, so good.
Now, to convert inches to centimeters, you need to multiply by the conversion factor 2.54 cm/inch. Let's do that calculation:
60 inches x 2.54 cm/inch = 152.4 cm
So the correct height of Seabiscuit is indeed 152.4 cm, which matches your initial calculation.
The answer in the back of the book, "1.5 x 10^2 cm," is just a different way of writing the same number. It is called scientific notation, and it represents 1.5 multiplied by 10 to the power of 2 (which is 100). So, "1.5 x 10^2 cm" is equivalent to "150 cm," which is the correct height of Seabiscuit.