Question

Continent x has an area of 6.23x 10 to the power of 6. Continent y has an area of 63600000. How many times larger is Y than X?

a) 10 times larger
b) 100 times larger
c) 1000 times larger
d) 10000 times larger

Answer 1

Calculating areas in scientific notation, continent Y is approximately 10 times larger than continent X.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how many times larger continent Y is than continent X, we need to compare their areas. The area of continent X is given in scientific notation as 6.23 \( \times \) 106, and the area of continent Y is given as 63,600,000 square units. To compare these, we can write the area of continent Y in scientific notation and then divide it by the area of continent X.

Writing the area of continent Y in scientific notation:

63,600,000 = 6.36 \( \times \) 107

Now we divide the area of continent Y by the area of continent X:

\( \frac{6.36 \( \times \) 107}{6.23 \( \times \) 106} \)= \( \frac{6.36}{6.23} \) \( \times \) 101

\( \frac{6.36}{6.23} \) is approximately 1.02 and 101 equals 10. Therefore, the approximate quotient is 1.02 \( \times \) 10, which is slightly more than 10.

Thus, the area of continent Y is approximately 10 times larger than the area of continent X, which corresponds to option a.