Question

The miles of track in the U.S. railroad system peaked in the early 1900s. At that time, more than 270,000 miles of track crisscrossed the country. What is the approximate amount of track written in scientific notation?

Answer 1

To express the number of miles of track, which is more than 270,000 miles, in scientific notation, we first write it in standard numeric form:

270,000 can be expressed as \( 2.7 \times 10^5 \).

So, the approximate amount of track in scientific notation is \( 2.7 \times 10^5 \) miles.