Question

One second is approximately 0.0000115741 of a day. What is this number in scientific notation?

a) 1.15741 × 10-⁵
b) 1.5741 × 10-⁵
c) 1.741 × 10-⁵
d) 1.574 × 10-⁵

Answer 1

One second expressed as a fraction of a day in scientific notation is 1.15741 × 10^-5, which corresponds to option a).

Step-by-step explanation:

The student has provided the approximate value of one second as a fraction of a day, which is 0.0000115741. To express this number in scientific notation, we move the decimal point of the number to the right until we have a number between 1 and 10, keeping count of the number of moves. This count will be the negative exponent of 10 in scientific notation since we are dealing with a number smaller than 1. Moving the decimal point 5 places to the right, we get 1.15741. Therefore, 0.0000115741 expressed in scientific notation is 1.15741 × 10^-5. This matches option a), which is the correct answer to the question.

One second expressed as a fraction of a day in scientific notation is 1.15741 × 10^-5, which corresponds to option a).