Question

A penny has a thickness of approximately 1.0 mm. If you stacked Avogadro's number of pennies one on top of the other on Earth's surface, how far would the stack extend (in kilometers). For comparison, the sun is about 150 million km from Earth and the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) is about 40 trillion km from Earth].

Answer 1

6.02 × 10²⁷ km

Step-by-step explanation:

Step 1: Calculate the height of the stack of pennies

A penny has a thickness of approximately 1.0 mm. If you stacked Avogadro's number of pennies (6.02 × 10²³ pennies) one on top of the other on Earth's surface, the height of the stack of pennies would be:

6.02 × 10²³ pennie × 1.0 mm/1 pennie = 6.02 × 10²³ mm

Step 2: Convert 6.02 × 10²³ mm to kilometers

We will use the following conversion factors.

• 1 km = 10³ m

• 1 m = 10³ mm

6.02 × 10²³ mm × 1 m/10³ mm × 1 km/10³ m = 6.02 × 10²⁷ km