To find out how many gallons of water the Amazon River releases into the Atlantic Ocean in one year, we need to multiply the number of gallons released per second by the number of seconds in a year.
- Gallons released per second: \(5.5 \times 10^7\) gallons
- Seconds in a year: \(3.2 \times 10^7\) seconds
Now, we can perform the multiplication:
\[
\text{Total Gallons} = (5.5 \times 10^7) \times (3.2 \times 10^7)
\]
When multiplying numbers in scientific notation, we multiply the coefficients and add the exponents:
\[
= (5.5 \times 3.2) \times (10^7 \times 10^7)
\]
Calculating the coefficients:
\[
5.5 \times 3.2 = 17.6
\]
Calculating the exponents:
\[
10^7 \times 10^7 = 10^{(7+7)} = 10^{14}
\]
Putting it all together:
\[
\text{Total Gallons} = 17.6 \times 10^{14}
\]
Now, we need to express \(17.6\) in proper scientific notation with appropriate significant figures. The correct scientific notation for \(17.6\) is:
\[
1.76 \times 10^1 \text{ (since we shift the decimal point left one place)}
\]
Thus, we have:
\[
1.76 \times 10^1 \times 10^{14} = 1.76 \times 10^{15}
\]
Finally, expressing our answer with the appropriate significant digits (the least number of significant digits from the initial values is 2, from \(3.2 \times 10^7\)) gives us:
\[
\text{Total Gallons} \approx 1.8 \times 10^{15} \text{ gallons}
\]
So, the Amazon River releases approximately \(1.8 \times 10^{15}\) gallons of water into the Atlantic Ocean in one year.
