Question

The population of the state of Colorado was about 5,846,000 people in 2020.

Which number best approximates the population as a single digit times a
power of 10?
OA. 6x 10-6
OB. 6 x 106
C. 5 × 105
D. 5 x 106

Answer 1

The answer is B. 6 x 10^6

Answer 2

Answer:
`6 * 10^6` which is choice B

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Method 1

5,846,000 rounds to 6,000,000 aka "6 million".

This converts to the scientific notation
`6 * 10^6`

The first 6 is from "6 million", while the 6 as the exponent tells us to move the decimal point that many places to the right to go from 6.0 to 6,000,000

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Method 2

Place a decimal point between the first two digits of 5,846,000 and erase the zeros at the end.

So we get 5.846

We must move the decimal point 6 spaces to the right to go from 5.846 back to 5,846,000 again

Therefore,
`5,846,000 = 5.846 * 10^6`

Then the 5.846 rounds to 6.0 or simply 6 when rounding to the nearest whole number. This leads to
`6 * 10^6`