Question

A water park has pools, slides, and rides

that, in total, make use of 4.6 x 10^5
gallons of water. They plan to add a ride
that would make use of an additional
6.7 x 10^4 gallons of water. Use scientific
notation to express the total gallons of
water made use of in the park after the
new ride is installed.

Answer 1

5.27×10^5 gallons

Explanation:

Adding numbers in scientific notation requires that their powers of ten match. Here, we can rewrite the smaller number so its power of ten matches that of the larger number.

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4.6×10^5 +6.7×10^4

= 4.6×10^5 + 0.67×10^5

= 5.27×10^5

The park will use 5.27×10^5 gallons of water after the new ride is installed.

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This kind of calculation can be done easily by your scientific calculator or a spreadsheet. You may have to set the display mode to scientific notation.