Question

Mary stated that 2.01 x 10⁶ is less than 4.8 x 10⁴ because 2.01 is less than 4.8. what was mary's mistake ?

I'm horrible at scientific notation so some help would be nice. =]​

Answer 1

Explanation:

Scientific notation is always written as a number between 1 and 9.9999999 repeating. There follows a power of 10. I'm not sure which answer would help you see it clearer but

4.8 * 10^4 the decimal is shifted 4 places the right which is 48000 where you have no numbers, you use zeros.

2.01 * 10^6 means that you shift the decimal 6 places to the right.

2010000

So 2 million is larger than 48 thousand.

The other way to do it is just to look at the power. 6 is more than 4. 6 describes the number of places you move. So does 4. 6>4 so that's the larger number.