Question

A factory produces boxes of paper clips that each contain 2.5 x 10^2 paper clips. Every hour, the factory produces 8000 boxes. Assuming the factory operates 24 hours per day, how many paper clips are produced in one week? Express your answer in scientific notation.

a) 4 x 10^7
b) 1.2 x 10^8
c) 5.6 x 10^8
d) 2 x 10^9

Answer 1

To find the total number of paper clips produced in one week, multiply the number of clips per box by the number of boxes produced per hour, then multiply by the total hours in one week. The result is 1.2 x 10^8 paper clips, which is option b).

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking how many paper clips are produced in one week by a factory that operates 24 hours a day, given that each box contains 2.5 x 10^2 paper clips and the factory produces 8000 boxes every hour. To find the total number of paper clips produced in one week, we need to calculate:

• The total number of paper clips produced per hour, which is 2.5 x 10^2 clips per box times 8000 boxes.
• The total number of hours in a week, which is 24 hours per day times 7 days.
• Finally, multiply the paper clips produced per hour by the total number of hours in a week.

The calculation would be: (2.5 x 10^2 clips/box) x (8000 boxes) x (24 hours/day) x (7 days/week)

After performing the calculation and expressing the number in scientific notation, the result is 1.2 x 10^8 paper clips produced per week. Therefore, the correct choice is b) 1.2 x 10^8.