Question

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of economic activity. GDP is the total amount of goods acountry was about $14.864 trillion and the population of the country was about 375.6 million.a) Write each of these two numbers in scientific notation.b) Determine the GDP per capita by dividing the GDP by the population of the country.

Answer 1

a) Consider that a number in scientific notation must be written by taking into account that the absolute value of the coefficient is a number greater than 0 and lower than 10. Furthremore, the base should be 10 and the exponent must be a noz-zero integer.

Then, for the given amounts, you have:

GDP = $14.864 trillion

1 trillion is 1,000,000,000,000 or 10^12

GDP = $14.864*10^12 = $1.4864*10*10^12

GDP = $1.4864*10^13 (GDP in scientific notation)

Population = 375.6 million

1 million is 1,000,000 or 10^6

Population = 375.6*10^6 = 3.756*10^2*10^6

Population = 3.756*10^8 (Population is scientific notation)

b) By using the rules for the operations of exponents, you obtain:

`(GDP)/(population)=(1.4864\cdot10^(12))/(3.756\cdot10^8)\approx3.9\cdot10^4`

Hence, the GDP per capita is approximately 3.9*10^4