Angstrom

[Agustina Santa Cruz 2F]

I'm a little confused on converting units still. I know 1 Angstrom is 10^-10m. But if I have 6.001x10^-7 and I multiply that by 10^-10 on my calculator, I get 6.001x10^-17 when the answer should be 6001 angstroms I think. Any ideas?

[Eileen Quach Dis 2A]

6.001*10^-17 m is correct if you're multiplying those two numbers. 6.001*10^-7 multiplied by 10^-10 is 6.001*10^-17 because since 10^-7 and 10^-10 have the same bases, you can add their exponents to get 10^-17. 10^-17 is multiplied to 6.001 to get the answer your calculator gave you. I'm not sure why the answer doesn't match with your calculator answer, but it could be because you made a mistake in a previous step.

[Brianne Conway 1D]

You're right in that 6.001 x 10^-7 m converts to 6001 angstroms. You shouldn't be multiplying by 10^-10 though since you're not actually converting between different units. They're both in meters, just in different forms of scientific notation, if that makes sense. Basically all you need to do is think about how scientific notation works in the first place; since you're going from 10^-7 to 10^-10, all you need to is shift the decimal point in 6.001 three places to the right. Ultimately, remember that 6.001 x 10^-7 m and 6001 angstroms (or 6001 x 10^-10m) are exactly the same length; there aren't any conversions between different units and thus no multiplying. How I like to think about it is that 10^-10m is smaller than 10^-7 m, so I know that I have to make the number bigger in order to represent the same value. Not really sure if I explained this well enough but hope it helps!

[Yuelai Feng 3E]

Hi! I usually put the 2 units I want to convert into a fraction. For example, I know that 1m=100cm, so the fraction can be or . Because the denominator and numerator are the same, both fractions equal to 1.

Then, I can multiply a value by this fraction, and cancel out the units. For example, if you want to convert 6.001x10^-7 m into Angstrom, and you know that 1 Angstrom=10^-10m:

Remember to put the unit that you already have in the denominator of the fraction, so you can cancel them out.

Hope this helps!!

[Margaret Xu 3C]

Hey! Just wanted to add that if you want a brief review of exponents and unit conversions, I recommend looking at Appendix 1B and 1D in the textbook. It was a nice refresher :)

[Gicelle Rubin 1E]

Hi! I usually put the 2 units I want to convert into a fraction. For example, I know that 1m=100cm, so the fraction can be or . Because the denominator and numerator are the same, both fractions equal to 1.

Then, I can multiply a value by this fraction, and cancel out the units. For example, if you want to convert 6.001x10^-7 m into Angstrom, and you know that 1 Angstrom=10^-10m:

Remember to put the unit that you already have in the denominator of the fraction, so you can cancel them out.

Hope this helps!!

Thank you so much for this!! I think I finally understand!!!

[ShinwooKim_3E]

I'm a little confused on converting units still. I know 1 Angstrom is 10^-10m. But if I have 6.001x10^-7 and I multiply that by 10^-10 on my calculator, I get 6.001x10^-17 when the answer should be 6001 angstroms I think. Any ideas?

SInce -7 and -10 have a difference of 3 decimal places, the answer is 6001 angstroms, because moving 6.0001 (answer to 6.001*10^-7 * 10^-7) three decimal places would give you 6001 angstroms.