Question

Explain why 45.6 x 10⁸ is not Scientific notation.

A) It is in scientific notation.
B) The exponent should be a positive integer.
C) Scientific notation cannot have decimals.
D) Scientific notation is only for very large numbers.

Answer 1

The number 45.6 x 10⁸ is not in scientific notation because the coefficient is not between 1 and 10; it should be rewritten as 4.56 x 10⁹ to be in proper scientific notation. The correct option is A.

Step-by-step explanation:

The number 45.6 x 10⁸ is not in scientific notation because in proper scientific notation, the coefficient (the number before the multiplication sign) needs to be a number between 1 and 10.

Although the exponent is correctly a positive integer, indicating a very large number, the coefficient should have only one non-zero digit before the decimal point. For 45.6 x 10⁸ to be in scientific notation, it should be rewritten as 4.56 x 10⁹.

In the correct scientific notation form, 4.56 is the coefficient which is between 1 and 10, and 10⁹ is the exponential term showing the scale of the number. The correct option is A.