At the end of fiscal year 2004, the federal debt of country c is $278,560,125,000. What is the closest estimation of this amount? Express your answer in the form of a single digit times an intiger power of 10
The closest estimation of $278,560,125,000 can be expressed as $300,000,000,000 or 3 x 10^11.
To estimate the amount $278,560,125,000 as a numerical expression in the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10, we need to consider the place value of the digits.
In this case, if we move the decimal point in $278,560,125,000 to the left 11 places, it becomes $2.78560125.
To express this value in the required form, we can multiply it by 10^11. This gives us:
$2.78560125 × 10^11
Rounded to the closest estimation, the final answer is:
2.8 × 10^11
To estimate the closest value of the federal debt in the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10, we can use rounding.
Looking at the given number, $278,560,125,000, we see that it is in the billions. Since the question asks for a single digit times an integer power of 10, we need to round the number to the nearest billion.
To do this, we look at the digit in the billions place, which is 2. Since it is less than 5, we round down to the nearest billion.
Therefore, the closest estimation of the federal debt would be $200,000,000,000 or $2 × 10^11.