Question

The male African elephant at the city zoo has a mass of 5450 kg. What is its

mass in scientific notation?
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A. 54.5 x 102 kg
B. 5.45 10-3 kg
C. 5.45 103 kg
D. 545 x 103 kg

Answer 1

C. 5.45 × 10^3 kg

Step-by-step explanation:

Scientific notation is a way of writing large or small numbers in a decimal form also called exponential form i.e. expressed in terms of power of tens.

This simple method can ve followed when converting a number to scientific notation. We say; a × 10^x

a is the decimal number expressed in the power of tens

x is power of ten

According to the question, a male African elephant weighs 5450 kg.

To convert 5450 to scientific notation, we first of all move the decimal points to the left until we have only one number leftward

N.B: the decision point in any whole number is in front of the last number going rightwards.

We have, 5450 = 5.450

Next, we count how many times the decimal point was moved leftwards. In this case, it was moved three (3) times. Hence, the power of ten (x) is 3.

Because we moved leftwards, the power of ten will be a positive number. We have;

5.450 × 10^3 kg.