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TheNatureGirl · Dec 16, 2014, 05:52 PM

I am new to scientific notation and I am a year ahead in math so this is kind of hard for me. So I think that the equation 30x10^-9 should be corrected to 3x10^-9. But I want to be able to show my work, and I don't know how to. I just need some guidance. By the way ^ means raised to (a power). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

ebaines · Dec 17, 2014, 06:44 AM

The title of your post is different than the numbers in the body of your post, so I'm not sure what yuor question is. However, from the title:

$30 \times 10^8 = 3 \times 10^1 \times 10^ 8 = 3 \times 10^9$ .

I don't see how you ended up with a -9 for the exponent. Remember that when multiplying numbers with exponents the exponents add, so for example $10^3 \times 10^{-7} = 10^{(3+\ -7)} = 10^{-4}$ . Using the numbers in the body of your post:

$30 \times 10^{-9} = 3 \times 10^1 \times 10^{-9} = 3 \times 10^{-8}$ .

TheNatureGirl · Dec 17, 2014, 04:44 PM

Oh sorry, typos. The original equation was 30x10^-8. I had to correct it to proper scientific notation, and I thought the answer was 3x10^-9. But I now see the answer is 3x10^-7. This makes sense when you lay it out. Thanks