Question

light travels at a speed of 3.0 x 10 / 8 / second if you used a calculator to find the distance light travels in 4,500 seconds you will get

Answer 1

Scientific Notation

The speed of light is

`v=3\cdot10^8\text{ m/s}`

If I wanted to calculate the distance traveled in t=4,500 seconds, I would have to input the following operation in the calculator:

`d=3\cdot10^8\text{ m/s}\cdot4,500\text{ s=}1.35\cdot10^(12)\text{ m}`

The calculator will show it as:

1.35e+12

or maybe

1.35 E 12

1.35 E +12

Those are possible outputs from a modern calculator