The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct answer is 3.5 × 10⁻⁶.
Explanation
Scientific notation is a standard way of writing numbers that are very large or very small, making them easier to read and work with. The format is always a number multiplied by a power of 10, written as:
a × 10ᵇ
Here, ‘a’ is called the coefficient, and it must be a number greater than or equal to 1 but less than 10. The ‘b’ is the exponent, which is an integer representing the number of places the decimal point was moved.
To convert the number 0.0000035 into scientific notation, we follow these steps:
- Find the coefficient (a): We need to move the decimal point in 0.0000035 to a position where there is only one non-zero digit to its left. The first non-zero digit is 3. So, we move the decimal point to be right after the 3. This gives us the number 3.5. This value satisfies the rule for the coefficient, as it is between 1 and 10.
- Find the exponent (b): Now, we count how many places we moved the decimal point.Original position: 0.0000035
New position: 3.5To get from the original number to 3.5, we moved the decimal point 6 places to the right. - Determine the sign of the exponent: The direction you move the decimal determines the sign of the exponent.
- If the original number is small (less than 1), the exponent will be negative.
- If the original number is large (10 or greater), the exponent will be positive.
- Combine the parts: Finally, we put the coefficient and the exponent together in the proper format.
The coefficient ‘a’ is 3.5, and the exponent ‘b’ is -6. Therefore, 0.0000035 written in scientific notation is 3.5 × 10⁻⁶.
