Question

The weight of a blue whale is about 200,000 kg, or 2 x 10⁵ kg. The weight of a white rhinoceros is about 2000 kg, or 2 x 10³ kg. About how many times heavier is the blue whale than the rhinoceros?

Options:
a) 4 times
b) 1 x 10⁻2 times
c) 1 x 10² times
d) 198,000 times

Answer 1

The blue whale is 100 times heavier than the white rhinoceros, represented as 1 x 10² times heavier.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how many times heavier the blue whale is than the white rhinoceros, we can use division since we are comparing their weights. The weight of the blue whale is 2 x 10⁵ kg (200,000 kg) and the weight of the white rhinoceros is 2 x 10³ kg (2,000 kg). To find out how many times heavier the blue whale is, we divide the weight of the blue whale by the weight of the rhinoceros:

2 x 10⁵ kg ÷ 2 x 10³ kg = (2÷2) x (10⁵÷10⁻³) = 1 x 10²

This shows that the blue whale is 1 x 10² (100) times heavier than the white rhinoceros.