Physics Review Question Unit: mechanics Year: 1995 Question#: 1 Question: The thickness of a dollar bill is closest to (1 ) 10-4 m (2 ) 10-2 m (3 ) 10-2 m (4 ) 101 m What is this question really asking? Explanation by: Christine A [ Return to question menu ] Answer 1 10-4 m CORRECT This is correct because 10-4m is equal to .0001 m, or 0.1 mm. This is approximately the thickness of your ordinary dollar bill. return to top Answer 2 10-2 m INCORRECT 10-2m is equal to one centimeter, or about the thickness of an average thumb. Ordinary dollar bills are not this thick, so answer 2 must be incorrect. return to top Answer 3 10-1 m INCORRECT This answer is equal to 0.1 meters, or 10 centimeters. This is considerably thicker than a dollar bill- however, it is comparable to a large stack of dollar bills- thus, this answer must be incorrect. return to top Answer 4 101 m INCORRECT Ten to the first power meters is equal to ten meters. Thus, this question states that a dollar bill is ten meters tall. Ten meters is approximately the height of a one-story building. Knowing this, answer 4 is clearly wrong. return to top What's this question really asking? (a) Do you know how to use exponents (especially negative ones)? (b) Do you know the approximate length of a meter? (c) Do you know how big a dollar bill is? return to top |
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