Question

The number of water droplets in a specific body of water is 123,000,000,000,000. Write this number in scientific notation.

How did you get this answer?

Answer 1

`1.23 * 10^(14)`

Explanation:

A number written in scientific notation consists of two parts that are multiplied.

The first part is a number that is greater than or equal to 1 and less than 10.

The second part is an integer power of 10.

Start with your number, 123,000,000,000,000.

All the zeros are place holders. To get a number out of it that is greater than or equal to 1 and less than 10, you move the decimal place to just to the right of the 1, like this: 1.23

Now you know very well that 1.23 is much, much smaller than the original number, but if you multiply it by a power of 10, you will get the original number.

To know the exponent of 10 you need to use, count the number of decimal places that the original number changed to become 1.23.

Original number: 123,000,000,000,000.

Notice the decimal place is all the way at the right after the last zero.

The new number is

1.23000000000000

How many places did the decimal place move? 14

Therefore, the answer is

`1.23 * 10^(14)`