To find out how many times heavier a blue whale is compared to an elephant, you can divide the weight of the blue whale by the weight of the elephant.
The average weight of a blue whale is \( 4 \times 10^5 \) pounds, and the average weight of an elephant is \( 1 \times 10^4 \) pounds.
Now, perform the division:
\[ \text{Number of times heavier} = \frac{4 \times 10^5}{1 \times 10^4} \]
When dividing, you can divide the coefficients and subtract the exponents of 10:
\[ = \frac{4}{1} \times 10^{5 - 4} = 4 \times 10^1 = 4 \times 10 = 40 \]
So, a blue whale is 40 times heavier than an elephant.
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