Answer:
To determine how many times smaller one value is than another, we can divide the larger value by the smaller value. Let's calculate:
(8.5 x 10^(-4)) / (5 x 10^(-7))
To divide these numbers, we subtract the exponents of 10 and divide the coefficients:
8.5 / 5 = 1.7
(10^(-4)) / (10^(-7)) = 10^(-4 - (-7)) = 10^3 = 1000
So, (8.5 x 10^(-4)) / (5 x 10^(-7)) = 1.7 x 1000 = 1700
Therefore, 5 x 10^(-7) is 1700 times smaller than 8.5 x 10^(-4).