Question

There are 6.54 million people in Indiana. The area of Indiana is 36,185 square miles. Use scientific notation to calculate Indiana’s people per square miles.

Answer 1

Step
`1`

Divide the number of people by the number of square miles

we know that

`6.54` million people is equal to

`6,540,000` people

`(6,540,000)/(36,185) (people)/(mi^(2)) =180.74(people)/(mi^(2))`

Step
`2`

Convert to scientific notation

`180.74(people)/(mi^(2))=1.8074*10^(2)(people)/(mi^(2))`

therefore

the answer is

`1.8074*10^(2)(people)/(mi^(2))`

Answer 2

The easiest way to calculate this is to divide the number of people (6.54 million) by the number of square miles (36,185). 6540000/36185 = 180.74. In scientific notation, which can only include numbers between 1 and 9, we will have to move our decimal point to the left two spaces, meaning that our answer is 1.8 x 10^2.