An airplane flight from Houston, Texas to Rome, Italy is 5,686 miles. Estimate the distance between the two cities as the product of a single digit number times a power of 10.

Question

A: 6 X 10^4
B: 5 X 10^3
C: 6 X 10^3
D: 5 X 10^4

Answer 1

We can write 5,686 as $5.686\times10^{3}$. Since $5.686 \approx 6$ (to the nearest hundredth), we have $5.686 \times 10^{3} \approx 6 \times 10^{3}$. Therefore, the answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(C) }6 \times 10^{3}}$.