The U.S. generates an estimated 2 million tons of e-waste each year. At this rate, how many pounds of e-waste does the U.S. generate in one week? Express the answer in scientific notation. Use the relationships below to help you decide:
1 ton = 2,000 pounds
1 year ≈ 52 weeks
So, just watch the units. You want to convert from ton/yr to lb/wk. So,
2*10^6ton/yr * 1yr/52wk * 2000lb/ton = 1*10^9/13 = 7.69*10^7 lb/wk
To find out how many pounds of e-waste the U.S. generates in one week, we need to convert the given value of 2 million tons into pounds.
First, we use the conversion factor of 1 ton = 2,000 pounds to convert tons to pounds.
2 million tons = 2,000 pounds * 2 million = 4 billion pounds
Now, we need to find out how many pounds of e-waste the U.S. generates in one week.
Considering that there are approximately 52 weeks in a year, we divide the total pounds of e-waste generated in a year by 52 to get the amount generated in one week.
4 billion pounds / 52 weeks = 76.9230769 million pounds per week
Finally, we express the answer in scientific notation:
76.9230769 million pounds can be written as 7.69230769 x 10^7 pounds.
Therefore, the U.S. generates approximately 7.7 x 10^7 pounds of e-waste in one week.