A plant cell has a length of 0.000085 meters. Which is this length written in scientific notation?
To write the length of a plant cell in scientific notation, we need to express it as a number between 1 and 10, multiplied by a power of 10.
Given that the length of the plant cell is 0.000085 meters, we can rewrite it by moving the decimal point to the right until there is only one non-zero digit to the left of the decimal point. In this case, we need to move the decimal point 5 places to the right:
0.000085 = 8.5 x 10^(-5)
So, the length of the plant cell in scientific notation is 8.5 x 10^(-5) meters.
position the decimal point to the right of the left-most non-zero digit
how many places did it move? ... which direction?
the number of places is the size of the exponent
the move direction is the sign of the exponent
... right is negative ... left is positive