An average American household uses about 1.04 x 10^4 kWh of electricity a year. If a power station generates 2.496 * 10 ^ 11 kWh per year, how many households can it serve? Write your answer in scientific notation, expressed to the exact decimal place.

3 answers

To determine how many households a power station can serve, we divide the total power generated by the power used by an average household:

Number of households = Total power generated / Power used per household

Number of households = (2.496 * 10 ^ 11 kWh) / (1.04 * 10 ^ 4 kWh/year)

Simplifying the expression:

Number of households = (2.496 / 1.04) * (10 ^ 11 / 10 ^ 4)

Number of households = 2.4 * (10 ^ (11 - 4))

Number of households = 2.4 * 10 ^ 7

Therefore, the power station can serve 2.4 * 10^7 households.
that isnt the answer
Apologies for the error. Let's redo the calculation:

Number of households = Total power generated / Power used per household

Number of households = (2.496 * 10 ^ 11 kWh) / (1.04 * 10 ^ 4 kWh/year)

Simplifying the expression:

Number of households = (2.496 / 1.04) * (10 ^ (11 - 4))

Number of households = 2.4 * (10 ^ 7)

Therefore, the power station can serve 2.4 * 10^7 households. This is the correct answer expressed in scientific notation.