Question

The projected world population for the year 2025 is 8,000,000,000 people. How do you write this number in scientific form?

Answer 1

`8 xx 10^9`

Explanation:

Scientific notation shows the size of a number as a power of 10.

`100 = 1 xx 10^2, 10 000 = 1 xx 10^4` and so on.

However, the number at the front must be less than 10 - only one (non-zero) digit is allowed before the decimal point.

`8,000,000,000 = 8 xx 1,000,000,000 " (8 billion)"`

=`8 xx 10^9 " there are 9 place holders after the 8"`