Question

As the sea floor of the Atlantic Ocean spreads, the African Plate moves eastward. Over the last 100 million years, the plate has moved approximately 2,100 kilometers. How many centimeters per year does it move eastward?

Answer 1

The plate moves a distance of 2,100 kilometers in 100 million years. The question requires units of centimeters. Convert the distance using 1 km = 100,000 cm:

To find speed, divide distance by time. The time it takes the plate to move 210,000,000 centimeters is 100 million years:

So, the African plate moves by approximately 2.1 centimeters per year.

Step-by-step explanation:

This is the exact answer. So switch it up a bit!

Answer 2

The correct answer is - 2.1 cm per year.

In order to get to the result of how much the African plate has been moving annually over the last 100 million years, we should first turn the kilometers into centimeters:

1 m = 100 cm

1 km = 1,000 m

1,000 m = 100,000,000 cm

2,1 x 100,000,000 = 210,000,000 cm

We got to the result of 210 million cm of total movement. Now we have to divide the number of cm with the number of the years in which the plate has moved that much, which is 100 million:

210,000,000 / 100,000,000 = 2.1 cm

So we get a result of an average movement of 2.1 cm per year pf the African plate during the period of 100 million years.