Question

An ant has a mass of approximately 4 times 10 the power of -3 grams and an elephant has a mass of approximately 8 metric tons.

how many ants does it take to have the same mass as an elephant?

Answer 1

2,000,000,000 ants

Explanation:

Ant's mass is
`4*10^(-3)` grams

Putting that into decimal [or converting scientific notation to decimal]

We have:

0.004 grams

Note: to the power -3 means taking the decimal point 3 places left, so we have 0.004 grams

To compare, we have to take the elephant's weight to grams.

Firstly, 1 metric ton = 1000 kg

So 8 metric ton = 1000 * 8 = 8000 kg

Now, we know 1000 grams = 1 kg, so

8000 kg = 8000 * 1000 = 8,000,000 grams

The elephants weight (in grams) is 8,000,000 grams

How many ants are there in this?? We simply divide and find:

8,000,000/0.004 = 2,000,000,000 ants

It takes 2,000,000,000 ants to equate the mass of one elephant