An average American household uses about 1.04 x 10^4 kWh of electricity a year. If a power station generates 2.496 x 10^10 kWh per year, how many households can it serve? Write your answer in scientific notation, expressed to the exact decimal place.

Answer 1

To find the number of households that can be served, we need to divide the total electricity generated by the power station by the electricity used by a single household.

Number of households = (Total electricity generated) / (Electricity used by a single household)

Number of households = 2.496 x 10^10 kWh / 1.04 x 10^4 kWh

Let's simplify the expression:

Number of households = (2.496 / 1.04) x 10^(10 - 4)

Number of households = 2.4 x 10^(6)

Therefore, the power station can serve approximately 2.4 x 10^6 households.