Question

An average drop of blood contains about 1.6×10⁴ white blood cells. A rare drop of blood contains about 5×10⁴ white blood cells. What is the difference between the number of white blood cells in a rare drop of blood and the number of white blood cells in an average drop of blood? Express your answer in scientific notation in the form of a x 10ᵇ. What are the values of a and b?

Answer 1

The difference in the number of white blood cells between a rare drop of blood and an average drop is 3.4×10⁴ cells. In scientific notation, a = 3.4 and b = 4.

Step-by-step explanation:

The difference between the number of white blood cells in a rare drop of blood and an average drop of blood can be found by subtracting the average amount from the rare amount. So, if a rare drop of blood contains about 5×10⁴ white blood cells and an average drop contains about 1.6×10⁴ white blood cells, then the difference would be:

5×10⁴ - 1.6×10⁴ = (5 - 1.6) × 10⁴

= 3.4×10⁴ white blood cells

The values of a and b in the scientific notation a x 10ᵗ for the difference would be a = 3.4 and b = 4.