An asteroid is heading toward Mars at the rate of 7.7×104 mi./hr. If the asteroid is 3.311×108 miles away from Mars, how many hours will it be before it hits Mars? Write the answer in scientific notation, expressed to the exact decimal place.(1 point)
hours
To find the number of hours before the asteroid hits Mars, we need to divide the distance to Mars by the rate at which the asteroid is traveling.
Distance to Mars: 3.311 × 10^8 miles
Rate of the asteroid: 7.7 × 10^4 mi/hr
Number of hours before the asteroid hits Mars = Distance / Rate
(3.311 × 10^8 miles) / (7.7 × 10^4 mi/hr)
To divide, we subtract the exponents: 10^8 / 10^4 = 10^(8-4) = 10^4
Therefore, the number of hours before the asteroid hits Mars is (3.311 / 7.7) × 10^4.
Calculating this gives us approximately 0.429 times 10^4.
In scientific notation, expressing to the exact decimal place, the number of hours will be 4.29 × 10^3 (rounded to two decimal places).