Question

The population of Columbus, Ohio, in 2014 was about 823,000. The population of the United States was about 319 million in 2014.

About how many times larger was the population of the United States than the population of Columbus, Ohio? Show your work. Write in scientific notation

Answer 1

To find out how many times larger the population of the United States was compared to the population of Columbus, Ohio in 2014, we can use the following formula:

\[
\text{Ratio} = \frac{\text{Population of the United States}}{\text{Population of Columbus, Ohio}}
\]

Given the populations:
- Population of the United States = 319 million = \( 319,000,000 \)
- Population of Columbus, Ohio = 823,000

Now substituting the values into the formula:

\[
\text{Ratio} = \frac{319,000,000}{823,000}
\]

Calculating the ratio:

\[
\text{Ratio} = \frac{319,000,000}{823,000} \approx 387.7
\]

Now, we can express this in scientific notation.

387.7 in scientific notation is:

\[
3.877 \times 10^2
\]

Thus, the population of the United States was approximately \( 3.88 \times 10^2 \) times larger than the population of Columbus, Ohio in 2014.