standard_description: Perform operations with numbers expressed in scientific notation, including problems where both decimal and scientific notation are used. Use scientific notation and choose units of appropriate size for measurements of very large or very small quantities (e.g., use millimeters per year for seafloor spreading). Interpret scientific notation that has been generated by technology.
problem_activity: Task
An ant has a mass of approximately $4 \times 10^{−3}$ grams and an elephant has a mass of approximately 8 metric tons.
How many ants does it take to have the same mass as an elephant?
An ant is $10^{−1}$ cm long. If you put all these ants from your answer to part (a) in a line (front to back), how long would the line be? Find two cities in the United States that are a similar distance apart to illustrate this length.
Note: 1 kg = 1000 grams, 1 metric ton = 1000 kg, 1m = 100 cm, 1km = 1000 m


aligns: no