Question #12f02

1 Answer
Aug 30, 2017

1.3 * 10^(23) "s"^2

Explanation:

The key here is the fact that

color(blue)(ul(color(black)("1 Gs" = 10^9color(white)(.)"s")))

This means that you need 10^9 seconds in order to have 1 gigasecond. Consequently, 1 second will be equivalent to 1/10^9"th" of a gigasecond.

This means that "1 Gs"^2 will be equal to

"1 Gs" xx "1 Gs" = 10^9color(white)(.)"s" xx 10^9color(white)(.)"s"

color(blue)(ul(color(black)("1 Gs"^2 = 10^18color(white)(.)"s"^2)))

In your case, you have 1.3 * 10^5 "Gs"^2, so use the conversion factor we calculated above to convert this to seconds squared

1.3 * 10^5color(red)(cancel(color(black)("Gs"^2))) * (10^18color(white)(.)"s"^2)/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("Gs"^2)))) = color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)(1.3 * 10^(23)color(white)(.)"s"^2)))

The answer is rounded to two sig figs, the number of sig figs you have for the number of gigaseconds squared.