Final answer:
To find the total spent on housing, multiply the per-person spending by the total population, both in scientific notation. The total amount spent is $54 billion, which is expressed in scientific notation as $54 × 10⁹.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the total amount spent on housing by the entire state population, we multiply the average spending on housing per person by the total population. In this case, we have an average spending of $6,000 and a population of 9 million.
The calculation would be $6,000 × 9,000,000. To get this into scientific notation, we can express both numbers in scientific notation first:
$6,000 is the same as $6 × 10³ (since $6,000 is $6 times a thousand, or 10³).
9 million is 9 × 10⁶ (since 9 million is 9 times a million, or 10⁶).
Now we multiply the two:
$6 × 10³ × 9 × 10⁶ = $54 × 10³ × 10⁶
Combining the powers of ten, we add the exponents:
10³ × 10⁶ = 10³+6
So it becomes 10⁹ (since 3 + 6 = 9).
This gives us the final scientific notation as:
$54 × 10⁹