explain why scientific notation is useful in economics, algebra homework help

1. Writing in Math Use the information on page 332 to explain why scientific notation is useful in economics. Include the 2004 national debt of $7,379,100,000,000 and the U.S. population of 293,700,000, both written in words and in scientific notation, and an explanation of how to find the amount of debt per person with the result written in scientific notation and in standard notation.

6-1
Properties of Exponents
Main Ideas
• Use properties of
exponents to multiply
and divide
monomials.
• Use expressions
written in scientific
notation.
GET READY for the Lesson
Economists often deal with very
large numbers. For example, the
U.S. Public Debt
table shows the U.S. public debt
for several years. Such numbers,
written in standard notation, are
difficult to work with because
they contain so many digits.
Scientific notation uses powers
of ten to make very large or
very small numbers more
1900 1930 1960 1990 2004
manageable
(8) 20
1,200,000,000
16,100,000,000
284,100,000,000
00’000 Doc’est
7,379,100,000,000
New Vocabulary
simplify
standard notation
scientific notation
dimensional analysis
Year
Scurte: Bureau of the Pubile Debt
Multiply and Divide Monomials To simplify an expression containing
powers means to rewrite the expression without parentheses or negative
exponents. Negative exponents are a way of expressing the multiplicative
inverse of a number. For example, can be written as x 2. Note that an
expression such as x? is not a monomial. Why?
KEY CONCEPT
Negative Exponents
Words For any real number a 60 and any integer n, “=
and d
Examples 2+ = and +=b&
Study Tip
Look Back
You can review
monomials in
Lesson 1-1
EXAMPLESimplify Expressions with Multiplication
Simplify each expression. Assume that no variable equals 0.
a. (3x®y)(-4x?y!)
(3x+y)(-4x2y)
= (3.X •*•*•y.y).(-4.8.1.y.yyy) Definition of exponents