Suppose that a scientist estimates that every square mile of the ocean contains an
average of 4.6 × 104
pieces of trash. The area of the Earth’s surface that is
covered by oceans is approximately 1.2 × 108
square miles. Using the estimate,
how many pieces of trash are in the Earth’s oceans?
still dont understand .
online, we use ^ for powers
copy/paste of superscripts does not usually work in plain text
So, how many pieces of trash?
4.6 × 10^4 pieces/mi^2 * 1.2 × 10^8 mi^2
= 4.6*1.2 × 10^4*10^8
= 5.52 × 10^12 pieces
4.6 * 104 = 478.4 pieces of trash per square mile of ocean
1.2 * 108 * 478.4 = ______ pieces of trash in the oceans
Just plug this multiplication problem into a calculator.
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To find out how many pieces of trash are in the Earth's oceans, we need to multiply the average number of pieces of trash per square mile by the total area of the Earth's oceans.
Step 1: Find the average number of pieces of trash per square mile.
The scientist estimates that there are 4.6 × 10^4 pieces of trash per square mile.
Step 2: Find the total area of the Earth's oceans.
The area of the Earth's surface covered by oceans is approximately 1.2 × 10^8 square miles.
Step 3: Multiply the average number of pieces of trash per square mile by the total area of the Earth's oceans.
(4.6 × 10^4) × (1.2 × 10^8) = (4.6 × 1.2) × (10^4 × 10^8) = 5.52 × 10^12 pieces of trash.
Therefore, there are approximately 5.52 × 10^12 pieces of trash in the Earth's oceans, based on the given estimate.