At the end of fiscal year 2004, the federal debt of Country C is $278,560,125,000. What is the closest estimation of this amount? Express your answer in the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10.(1 point) Responses 3 × 10^−11 3 times 10 superscript negative 11 baseline 2.79 × 10^11 2.79 times 10 superscript 11 baseline 2 × 10^11 2 times 10 superscript 11 baseline 3 × 10^11 3 times 10 superscript 11 baseline

Answer 1

To express the federal debt of Country C, $278,560,125,000, in scientific notation, we need to convert it into the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10.

1. First, we identify the leading digit and the significant figures. The number $278,560,125,000 can be approximated as $280,000,000,000 for simplicity.

2. In scientific notation, this can be expressed as: \[ 2.8 \times 10^{11} \]

3. However, since we need to round to a single digit (the first significant figure), we can round it to: \[ 3 \times 10^{11} \] to keep the correct scale (because $280$ is closer to $3$ when considering significant figures).

Hence, the closest estimation of the federal debt in scientific notation is:

3 × 10^11.