Sergio is asked to write one million in scientific notation. He writes 10 6 and gets it wrong.

Question

Why was he wrong?

He should have written 10 5.
He should have written 10 6.
He should have written 1 × 10 6.
He should have written 1 × 10 5.

Answer 1

Sergio's mistake lies in how he wrote the scientific notation. The correct way to express one million in scientific notation is \( 1 \times 10^6 \).

In scientific notation, the format is typically \( a \times 10^n \), where \( 1 \leq a < 10 \) and \( n \) is an integer. One million is \( 1,000,000 \), which can be rewritten as \( 1 \times 10^6 \).

So the correct answer is:

He should have written \( 1 \times 10^6 \).