Final answer:
To find the area of the microchip, we multiply the length (3.0 × 10⁻⁵ meters) by the width (4.2 × 10⁻⁴ meters) to get 1.26 × 10⁻⁷ m², which rounds to 1.3 × 10⁻⁷ m² as the final answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question asks us to calculate the area of a rectangular microchip with given length and width. To find the area, we multiply the length by the width. The length is 3.0 × 10⁻⁵ meters and the width is 4.2 × 10⁻⁴ meters.
Area = length × width
= (3.0 × 10⁻⁵ m) × (4.2 × 10⁻⁴ m)
= (3.0 × 4.2) × (10⁻⁵ × 10⁻⁴) m²
= 12.6 × 10⁻⁹ m²
= 1.26 × 10⁻⁷ m²
The correct answer is b. 0.0000000013 m², which after rounding to the correct number of significant figures is 1.3 × 10⁻⁷ m².