Question

The hydrogen ion concentration of a vinegar solution is 0.00010 M. How is this concentration written in scientific notation?

Answer 1

`1.0xx10^-4`

Explanation:

In this problem, there are two significant figures. The final answer should also have two significant figures.

All scientific notation should have a non-zero number, followed by a decimal point to it's right, followed by remaining significant figures after that. The first non-zero number is `1`, so the decimal point should follow the `1`.

Moving the decimal to the right decreases the power of ten. The current number can be expressed as

`0.00010xx10^0`
`00color(red)(.)0010xx10^-1`
`000color(red)(.)010xx10^-2`
`0000color(red)(.)10xx10^-3`
`00001color(red)(.)0xx10^-4`

You can write the final answer by ignoring the initial zeros
`1.0xx10^-4`