Question

The total number of students who have attended Lacey's high school since it first opened is about 4 × 10⁴ students. The total number of students who have attended Monique's high school since it first opened is about 3 × 10⁵ students. Which school has a greater number of students who have attended? Show your work. Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

Monique's high school has had more students attend since it opened than Lacey's high school, with 300,000 students compared to 40,000.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking which school, Lacey's high school or Monique's high school, has a greater total number of students who have attended since the schools first opened. To determine this, we need to compare the numbers provided for each school: Lacey's high school with about 4 × 10⁴ students and Monique's high school with about 3 × 10⁵ students.

Step-by-step, we convert the scientific notation to standard form. For Lacey's high school, 4 × 10⁴ means 4 multiplied by 10,000, which is 40,000. For Monique's high school, 3 × 10⁵ means 3 multiplied by 100,000, which is 300,000.

Comparing these two numbers, we see that 300,000 (Monique's high school) is greater than 40,000 (Lacey's high school). Therefore, Monique's high school has had a greater number of students attend since it first opened.

Monique's high school has a greater total number of students who have attended compared to Lacey's high school.