The top speed of a Rocket Sled is 10,326 kilometers per hours. Is this faster or slower than the Autonomous Drone?

For full credit:

1) In full sentences, describe the steps you took to convert the Rocket Sled's speed into scientific notation.

2) You must include the correct Scientific Notation for the Rocket Sled to earn full points.)

3) Compare the speed to the Autonomous Drone. Explain how you know it is faster or slower.

1 answer

To determine whether the Rocket Sled's speed of 10,326 kilometers per hour is faster or slower than the Autonomous Drone, I first converted the speed into scientific notation.

  1. To convert 10,326 into scientific notation, I followed these steps:

    • First, I identified the significant figures in the number, which is 10,326. The first significant figure is 1, and the decimal point needs to be placed right after this figure. So, it becomes 1.0326.
    • Next, I counted the number of places the decimal point has moved from the original number to reach 1.0326. The decimal moved 4 places to the left.
    • Since we moved the decimal point to the left, I multiplied by 10 raised to the power of 4. Therefore, the scientific notation of 10,326 is \(1.0326 \times 10^4\).
  2. The correct scientific notation for the Rocket Sled's speed is \(1.0326 \times 10^4\) kilometers per hour.

  3. Now, I need to compare this speed to that of the Autonomous Drone. Although you haven't provided the speed of the Autonomous Drone, I can state that if the Autonomous Drone's speed is expressed in the same scientific notation format (i.e., \(x \times 10^n\)), we can easily compare them by looking at the coefficient \(x\) and the exponent \(n\).

    • If the speed of the Autonomous Drone is, for example, \(2.0 \times 10^4\) kilometers per hour, it would be faster than the Rocket Sled because \(2.0 > 1.0326\).
    • Conversely, if the Autonomous Drone's speed is \(8.0 \times 10^3\) kilometers per hour, it would be slower than the Rocket Sled because \(8.0 < 10.326\).

By applying this method of comparison, I can conclude whether the Rocket Sled is faster or slower than the Autonomous Drone based on the specific numerical values provided for both speeds.