Final answer:
The average life expectancy in the United States in seconds, which is 2,300,000,000 seconds, is written as 2.3 × 10⁹ in scientific notation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student was asked to express the average life expectancy in the United States, which is about 73 years or 2,300,000,000 seconds, in scientific notation. To convert seconds into scientific notation, you find the power of 10 that will make the number between 1 and 10 when multiplied by that power of 10. In this case, 2,300,000,000 seconds is 2.3 × 10 seconds in scientific notation because 2.3 multiplied by 10⁹ to the power of 9 equals 2,300,000,000.