Question 315508
I AM TRYING TO FIND THE ANSWER TO THIS IN SCIENTIFC NOTATION AND AM NOT SURE I UNDERSTAND HOW TO FIGURE IT CAN YOU HELP? The mass of Mercury is about 3.302*10^20 metric tons. The sun is about 1.998*10^27 metric tons. About how many times the mass of Mercury is the mass of the sun? The answer is supposed to be in scientific notation rounded to the nearest thousandth

okay no need to shout, lets see if I can explain this

scientific notation means that answers are stated in powers of 10, 
in the form a * 10^b
0.000001 = 1 * 10^(-6)
0.001    = 1 * 10^(-3)
1        = 1 * 10^0
1000     = 1 * 10^3
125000   = 1.25 * 10^5
and so on...

The mass of Mercury is about 3.302*10^20 metric tons. The sun is about 1.998*10^27 metric tons.
The sun is about 1.998*10^27 metric tons.
About how many times the mass of Mercury is the mass of the sun?

(mass of sun)/(mass of mercury) = how many times as massive
(1.998 * 10^27)/(3.302 * 10^20)
10^27 divided by 10^20 is 10^7, in division you subtract exponents
1.998/3.302 * 10^7
0.605 087 825 560 * 10^7 to 12 places
6.051 * 10^6 to 3 places (that would be to nearest thousandths) in scientific notation Mercury masses is the sun