Question

The average distance from the sun to the planet Venus is about 108,000,000 km. The diameter of a human hair is about 0.0025 mm.

(a) What is the distance from the sun to Venus written in scientific notation?

• [Please make sure to include your units]

(b) What is the diameter of a human hair written in scientific notation?

• [Please make sure to include your units]

(c) In comparing the measurements in Parts (a) and (b), what else must be done before a comparison is made?

Answer 1

Explanation:

It is given that,

The average distance from the sun to the planet Venus is about 108,000,000 km. The diameter of a human hair is about 0.0025 mm.

(a) In scientifc notation, the distance from the Sun to Venus will be :

There are 8 numbers before 1. It means

d = 1.08 × 10⁸ km

(b) In scientific notation, the diameter of a human hair will be :

There are 3 numbers after decimal. It means

D = 2.5× 10⁻³ mm

(c) Before comparing two measurements, both values must be converted into the same units.

Since, 1 mm = 10⁻⁶ km

D = 2.5× 10⁻³ × 10⁻⁶ km

= 2.5 × 10⁻⁹ km

For comparison divide the distance from the Sun to Venus and the diameter of a human hair.

`C=(1.08* 10^8\ km)/(2.5* 10^(-9)\ km)\\\\=4.32* 10^(16)`

Hence, this is the required solution.