Solomon needs to distribute 10.5 gallons of perfume among 3.5 × 10² containers. How many gallons of perfume will be in each container? Write the answer in scientific notation.

A. 3 × 10^-²
B. 3 × 10²
C. 0.35 × 10^-¹
3 × 10^-¹

1 answer

To find the number of gallons of perfume in each container, divide the total amount of perfume by the number of containers:

10.5 gallons / (3.5 × 10² containers)

This can be written in scientific notation as:

(3 × 10^1 gallons) / (3.5 × 10² containers)

Simplifying further:

(3/3.5) * (10^1 / 10²) gallons/containers

0.857 * 10^-1 gallons/containers

Written in scientific notation, this is:

0.857 × 10^-¹ gallons/containers

Therefore, the answer is:
C. 0.35 × 10^-¹