Question

The growth rate of a plant us 0.000152 per hour write this in scientific notation

Answer 1

We know that the growth rate of a plant is:

$0.000152\text{ per hour}$

And for doing so, we move the dot to the first significant digit on the decimal part, in this case, 1. We see that we have to move it 4 digits to the right:

When we move the dot, we get the number:

$1.52$

But we can't leave it like that, because we moved the dot. For balancing the things, we multiply by 10 to an exponent.

• If we moved the dot to the ,right,, the exponent is ,negative.,

,

• If we moved the dot to the ,left,, the exponent is ,positive.

In this case, we moved the dot 4 UNITS TO THE RIGHT. So, the exponent will be -4, this is:

$0.000152=1.52\times10^{-4}$

Thus, written in scientific notation 0.000152 is 1.52 × 10⁻⁴.

This can also be written as:

$152\times10^{-6}$

by moving the dot other 2 units to the right.

Note: Both expressions obtained represent the same number.