At 08:41 AM 5/16/2006, Eugene Salamin wrote:
--- Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
The radius of the earth's orbit is 150,000,000,000 meters. What is this number in scientific notation? A 1.5x10^-11 B 1.5x10^11 C 15x10^10 D 150x10^9
[The last time I looked, the Earth's orbit was ~ elliptical, so it has a semimajor & semiminor axis...]
B, C, and D are all correct. Is scientific notation supposed to be normalized, making B the only correct answer?
According to the answer guide, yes, the non-exponent part (mantissa?) is supposed to be normalized. Of course, inside computers (IEEE arithmetic), the normalization is done differently, but I guess that doesn't count. Prof. Kahan wouldn't be pleased, because this exam doesn't allow for his non-normalized "gradual underflow" numbers.
11/12-(1/3+1/4)
A 1/2 B 3/4 C 5/6 D 9/5
Is this a typo? The answer is 1/3.
Yes, A should have been 1/3 -- my typo.