Shannon and Kristoph are dividing numbers written in scientific notation.

Shannon’s expression: 4.2*10^9/1.4*10^4

Kristoph’s expression: 4.2*10^2/1.4*10^-3

A) Without completing the division, explain how you can determine that their answers will have the same value.

B) What is the value of their expressions written in scientific notation?

C) What is the value of their expressions written in standard form?

Shannon's expression:

Kristoph's expression:

Notice that both expression has the same coefficient numbers: 4.2 and 1.4. That means to have the same results, we just need to have the same powers.

Without dividing the complete expression, you can observe that both powers are the same, because each you subtract 9-4 = 5, and 2-(-3) = 5, both gives the same exponent to the power of 10.

Therefore, both expression give the same result, because they have the same numbers and the same powers.

Let's solve the division to have the result in scientific notation.

Shannon's expression:

Kristoph's expression:

The standard form refers to each number written without the power. To do so, we need to move the decimal points the number of spots as the exponent demands. Notice that the exponent is 5, that means, we need to move the decimal point 5 spots to the right.

Therefore, the standard value of the expressions is 300,000.

x is variable or an unknown value to find

example:

2x = 5 which means x = 3