Kevin moved from a city to a small town. The population of the city was 6 x 10^5, which is about 15 times a great as the small town. Write an expression in scientific notation that represents the population of the small town.
I got 4 x 10^4?
Please explain if I got it wrong
you are correct
To find the population of the small town, we can divide the population of the city by 15, as given. The population of the city is 6 x 10^5, so dividing it by 15 gives us (6 x 10^5) / 15 = 0.4 x 10^5.
In scientific notation, 0.4 can be written as 4 x 10^-1. When we multiply this by 10^5, we can combine the exponents to get 4 x 10^(-1 + 5) = 4 x 10^4.
So, your answer of 4 x 10^4 is correct. Well done!
To find the population of the small town, we need to divide the population of the city by the given ratio (15).
The population of the city is given as 6 x 10^5. To divide by 15, we can divide the coefficient (6) by 15 and divide the exponent (5) by 15:
6 / 15 = 0.4 (when divided by 15, the coefficient decreases)
and
5 / 15 = 1/3 (when divided by 15, the exponent decreases)
Now, we can write the population of the small town in scientific notation using the obtained values:
0.4 x 10^(1/3)
Note that 10^(1/3) represents the cube root of 10, which is approximately 2.1544.
So, the expression in scientific notation for the population of the small town is approximately 0.4 x 2.1544 = 0.8618.
Therefore, the population of the small town can be represented as approximately 0.8618 x 10^1.