Question

This is pretty chalanging for me

Answer 1

Discussion

It is not D. D is between 0 and 1 and much closer to zero than to one. The answer is much much bigger than 0 or 1.

It is not B. I can't explain why exactly B is incorrect: I don't know how it was derived. 10^6 is far too small. The E stands for exponent and the exponent is 14 not 6.

A has the right exponent in the wrong place. It is 10 that is raised to the 14th power not the 3.256.

So that only leaves C as the only possible answer. It is C in fact.

Note: in point of fact, the answer is not correct. There is no answer that is totally correct, although C comes closest. It should be 3.456 * 10^11 not 14. I think C intended to be right. You should realize that if you put this into your calculator, you will get 3.456 * 10^11. If you use C you will likely get it right. There is no other answer that works better.

Answer 2

The manual for your calculator or the help files on Excel or your other spreadsheet program will explain to you that a number in the format 3.456E+14 means 3.456×10¹⁴ (answer choice C).

The E is used to signify "times ten to the __", where the power in this case is 14.

_____

In the 50's when the first widely available computer programming language was FORTRAN, this notation was used to simplify input and output for numbers that were best expressed in scientific notation. In that language, a D was used instead of an E when the number was double-precision (12–14 digits instead of 6 or 7).