Question

Estimate the following problem using powers of 10. A small town in Texas started up with the population of 1,200 people 50 years ago. Now the town has experienced significant growth and has a population of about 1,320,500 people. approximately how many times larger is the population current population in a Texas town than it was 50 years ago.

Answer 1

In order to determine how many larger is the population now in comparisson tieh 50 years ago, calculate the quotient in between the two populations:

1,320,500 / 1,200

by using power of 10 you have:

1,200 = 1.2*10³

1,320,500 ≈ 1.3*10⁶

Then:

1,320,500 / 1,200 = 1.3*10⁶ / 1.2*10³ ≈ 1 * 10³

Then, the population now is approximately 1*10³ = 1000 times greater than the population 50 years ago