Question

Charlee is using her calculator to find the product of two large numbers. Her calculator shows 1.78E12 on the display. Interpret what this means. (2 points)

1 answer

The notation "1.78E12" on Charlee's calculator is a way of expressing the number in scientific notation.

This means that the calculator is displaying the number \( 1.78 \times 10^{12} \).

To interpret this, it tells us that the product of the two large numbers Charlee is calculating is equal to 1.78 multiplied by 10 raised to the power of 12.

In standard numerical form, this would be:

1.78 multiplied by 10,000,000,000 (which is 12 zeros), resulting in the actual value of:

1,780,000,000,000.

Thus, the display shows that the product of the two numbers is 1.78 trillion.