Question

Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes it covers a surface area of about 30,000 square miles. How can you show the estimated area of Lake Superior as a whole number multiplied by a power of ten? How can you use a pattern to find the answer?

Answer 1

3 x 10 x10 x10 x10 or 4x 10^4 power

Answer 2

The area would be,

`3* 10^(4)\text{ square miles}`

Explanation:

Since, a very large or very small number can be written as the product of whole number and exponent ( a power ) of ten,

If a number is very large then we move the decimal to left side so that we get a whole number then the number of shifting is the power of ten,

While when we shift the decimal to the right side then the exponent of 10 is negative.

Here, the given number,

30,000 square miles,

The number of shifting to the left so that we get a whole number is 4,

By the above statement,

30,000 =
`3.0* 10^4`

Hence, the estimated area of the lake would be
`3* 10^4` square miles