The Sun, on average, is 93 million miles from Earth. How many meters is this? Express
- using powers of 10, and
- using a metric prefix (km).
b)
In order to watch this solution you need to have a subscription.
This is Giancoli Answers with Mr. Dychko. Million gets the prefix 10 to the 6 so we have for part (a), 93 times 10 to the 6 miles could be one way of writing it with power notation. And in part (b), the front cover gives us a conversation factor between kilometers and miles; it's saying it is 1 kilometer for every 0.6214 miles so we multiply 93 times 10 to the 6 miles by this conversion factor and the miles cancel giving us 1.4966 times 10 to the 8 kilometers— the distance to the Sun— and we have two significant figures and so we have 1.5 times 10 to the 8 kilometers.
Is part A a mistake? It asked for 93 million miles in meters. I would think that it would be rounded to 1.5 x10^11 meters
Hi kingrhino, yes, you're quite right that it does ask for meters. I've updated the quick answer and made a note about the mistake in the video. Thanks for the sharp eye.
All the best,
Mr. Dychko
Find us on:
