Question

The estimated population of the world in the middle of 2010 was 6,852,472,823. Express this value in scientific notation.

Answer 1

First we round it off to the nearest millions.

6,852,472,823 rounded off - 6,852,000,000

then you move the decimal point to the left until the number becomes between 1 and 10

-- 6.852000000

count the numbers to the right of the decimal point, remove the zeroes, then write it as

6.852 x 10^9 or 6.852e9

9 is how many numbers are in the right of the decimal point, which was 852000000