Question

In Trevor's biology class, the students tested for bacteria on a kitchen sponge. They found that there were approximately 17,000,000 bacterial colonies on a single sponge. Express their findings in scientific notation.

Answer 1

in scientific notation 17,000,000=1.7× 10^1

Answer 2

in scientific notation their finding is expressed as 1.7 * 10 ^7

Explanation:

Scientific notation expresses a number in powers or multiples of 10 and its expressed as:

number * 10 ^n

where number is your number and n is the power by which you elevate 10 or the number of times 10 is multiplied, To find n we only have to divide our number by 10. In this case we have:

17,000,000 / 10 = 7

The result represents the power by which we elevate 10. Then, we must move our decimal point this number of times to the left so 17,000,000 is expressed as 1.7000000 or 1.7 and finally we have

1.7 * 10 ^7 as the scientific notation