Question

Male mosquitoes in the mood for mating find female mosquitoes of their own species by listening for the characteristic "buzzing" frequency of the female's wing beats. This frequency is about 620 wing beats per second.

How many cycles of oscillation does the radiation from a cesium-133 atom complete during one mosquito wing beat?

I know cesium-133 atom is 9,192,631,770 cycles/ second

Answer 1

620 wing beats = 1 sec

9,192,631,770 cycles = 1 sec

9,192,631,770 cycles = 620 wing beats
divide both by 620 wing beats

9192631770/620 cycles / wing beat

Answer 2

i tried that but it said it was wrong

Answer 3

what did you get for the answer?

Answer 4

25535088.25

Answer 5

well, that IS wrong :-) try doing it again.

Answer 6

9192631770/620 =

Answer 7

1414251.042

Answer 8

no, that's not right either. have you pressed the clear or all clear button on your calculator before starting the problem?

Answer 9

gahhhh

Answer 10

correct answer should be 1.48268 * 10^7, or digits to that effect...

Answer 11

14142510.42

Answer 12

you aren't entering the same numbers as I am.

Answer 13

okay what are you entering

Answer 14

9 1 9 2 6 3 1 7 7 0 / 6 2 0 =

Answer 15

bahahaha, okay, i was doing 650, damn thing... so do sif figs count? 1.4 x 10 ^7

Answer 16

sig*

Answer 17

I can't really advise you on whether or not they want you to round to an appropriate number of significant figures. If doing it on paper, I would write something like "\(1.48268 * 10^7\) cycles which is \(1.5 *10^7\) cycles to 2 significant figures"

[note that it is 1.48... so rounds to 1.5, not 1.4]

Answer 18

because the problem says "about 620 beats per second" perhaps we should go with the two significant figures suggested by "620".

Answer 19

okay thanks :) lifesaver

Answer 20

you're welcome!