Question

A student found the product of 7 x 10^3 and 5 * 10^8 to be 3.5 * 10^11 What is the error? What is the correctproduct? Complete the explanation

Answer 1

`7\cdot10^3\cdot5\cdot10^8=(7\cdot5)\cdot(10^3\cdot10^8)\text{ = 35}\cdot10^(3+8)=35\cdot10^(11)`

The student is off by a power of ten. The correct product is 35 x 10^11 or 3.5 x 10^12