Question

Kyle says 20x10^4 is the same as 20000. He reasoned that since he saw 4 as the exponent he should write 4 zeros in his answer. Is Kyle correct?
Doing My Homework

Answer 1

Consider the expression $20 \times 10^4$.

Kyle solved this expression and got the answer as 20,000. He reasoned that since he saw 4 as the exponent, so he wrote 4 zeros in his answer. Kyle is incorrect.

Consider the expression $10^4$, since there is 4 in the exponent. So, we can write 4 zeros in the answer.

So, $10^4 = 10,000$

Now, $20 \times 10^4 = 20 \times 10,000$

= $200,000$

Therefore,  $200,000$ is the correct answer.

Therefore, Kyle is not correct.