To find the difference between the sizes of the hydrogen atom and the oxygen atom, we first need to express both sizes in a similar scientific notation format:
- The size of a hydrogen atom is given as \(1.2 \times 10^{-10}\) m.
- The size of an oxygen atom is given as \(0.000000000152\) m, which can also be expressed as \(1.52 \times 10^{-10}\) m.
Now, let's calculate the difference:
\[ \text{Difference} = \text{Size of Hydrogen Atom} - \text{Size of Oxygen Atom} \]
\[ \text{Difference} = (1.2 \times 10^{-10}) - (1.52 \times 10^{-10}) \]
To perform this subtraction, we just subtract the coefficients since both values are already in the same order of magnitude:
\[ \text{Difference} = (1.2 - 1.52) \times 10^{-10} \] \[ \text{Difference} = -0.32 \times 10^{-10} \]
To express this in standard scientific notation, we adjust the coefficient to be positive:
\[ -0.32 \times 10^{-10} = -3.2 \times 10^{-11} \text{ m} \]
However, we are interested in positive differences, so we take the absolute value of the difference:
\[ \left| -0.32 \times 10^{-10} \right| = 3.2 \times 10^{-11} \text{ m} \]
Thus, the difference between the sizes of the hydrogen atom and the oxygen atom is:
3.2 × 10^-11 m.
So the correct answer choice is:
3.2 × 10^-11 m.
1 answer