How do you multiply #3.685 times 10^-5#?

1 Answer
H Dev · Pop Quiz Whiz
Mar 4, 2018

0.00003685

Explanation:

#10^{-5}# is the same thing as #0.00001#. Therefore, what you're basically doing is multiplying #3.685# by #0.00001# (however, scientific notation is used because it makes "scary" numbers appear digestible).

Knowing the above information, we know that we have to move the decimal five places to the left.

(If the exponent was positive, we would have moved it five places to the right - I suggest you to think about that in relation to what #10^{-5}# means versus #10^5#).

After moving the decimal five places to the left, the quotient would then be 0.00003685.

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