Chapter 1, Problem 37A

Solution

Interpretation: The number 1 trillion is to be written.

Concept introduction: 1 trillion is equal to a million millions. It is the number of pounds the scale shows if the whole human population is taken. It is the number of seconds humans have been around or the number of miles in one light year.

1 trillion is $\text{1000000000000}=\text{1}\times {\text{10}}^{\text{12}}$

The text shows that 1 trillion atoms can be fit into a period at the end of this sentence.

  

So, 1 trillion could be written in two notations: Regular notation and scientific notation.

Regular notation is how a number is generally written. For example, three hundred and sixty million are written as 360,000,000.

Scientific notation is used to express any number as a number between 1 and 10 which is known as the coefficient and is multiplied by 10 raised to a power that is known as the exponent.

So in regular notation, 1 trillion is 1000000000000 whereas in scientific notation it is expressed as $\text{1}\times {\text{10}}^{\text{12}}$ .

Thus, 1 trillion is $\text{1000000000000=1}\times {\text{10}}^{\text{12}}$ .