Question

A water park has pools, slides, and rides that, in total, make use of 6, point, 9, times, 10, to the power 56.9×10
5
gallons of water. They plan to add a ride that would make use of an additional 85,00085,000 gallons of water. Use scientific notation to express the total gallons of water made use of in the park after the new ride is installed.

Answer 1

Write both numbers with the same power of ten:
85,000 = 8.5 × 10^4 = 0.85 × 10^5.

Now add:
6.9 × 10^5 + 0.85 × 10^5 = (6.9 + 0.85) × 10^5 = 7.75 × 10^5.

So the total is 7.75 × 10^5 gallons (775,000 gallons).