Question

How do you simplify `\frac{1.88\times 10^{6}}{2.0\times 10^{3}}`?

Answer 1

See a solution process below:

Explanation:

First, rewrite the expression as:

`(1.88/2.0) xx (10^6/10^3) => 0.94 xx (10^6/10^3)`

Next, use this rule of exponents to simplify the 10s terms:

`x^color(red)(a)/x^color(blue)(b) = x^(color(red)(a)-color(blue)(b))`

`0.94 xx (10^color(red)(6)/10^color(blue)(3)) => 0.94 xx 10^(color(red)(6)-color(blue)(3)) = 0.94 xx 10^3`

To write this in standard scientific notation we need to move the decimal point on place to the right so we need to subtract 1 from the 10s exponent:

`0.94 xx 10^3 => 9.4 xx 10^2`