It takes 10 years for $100 a monthly bank deposit to amount to $15,528.23 when invested at 5% interest composed monthly. Round to the nearest place value, then express the amount $15,528.23 in the form of a * 10^n where a is a single digit.

1 answer

To express the amount $15,528.23 in the form of \( a \times 10^n \), where \( a \) is a single digit, we first need to convert \( 15,528.23 \) into that format.

  1. Identify \( a \) and \( n \):

    • We start by expressing \( 15,528.23 \) in scientific notation. We need to find \( a \) as a single digit and \( n \) as an exponent of 10.
  2. Move the decimal point to create a number between 1 and 10:

    • Shifting the decimal point 1 position to the left gives us: \[ 1.552823 \]
    • This shows that \( a = 1.552823 \).
  3. The corresponding exponent \( n \) becomes:

    • Since we moved the decimal point one position to the left from \( 15,528.23 \), we have: \[ n = 4 \]
  4. Now, we ensure \( a \) is a single digit:

    • We want to express it also in a form that \( a \) is truly a single digit. To do this, we can round: \[ a = 1.6 \quad (when , rounded) \]
  5. Therefore, combining these gives us: \[ 15,528.23 \approx 1.6 \times 10^4 \]

Thus, the value of \( 15,528.23 \) in the form of \( a \times 10^n \) is \( \boxed{1.6 \times 10^4} \).