Word Problem I

Project ID: 
3000000040
Question: 

A single female flea can consume up to $15$ times her body weight in blood during her adult life. Under normal circumstances, the adult female will live up to three weeks. A female flea can consume about $1.4\times10^{-5}$ liters of blood per day. If a dog has $50$ female fleas, how many liters of blood do the fleas consume in a week? Write your answer in scientific form.

Two students, Juraj and Tom, solved this problem. Each of them solved the problem on his own way.

Juraj:

(1) $50$ female fleas consume $50 \times 1.4 \times 10^{-5}\ l=70\times10^{-5}\ l$ of blood per day.

(2) In a week, $50$ female fleas consume $7\times70\times10^{-5}\ l=490\times10^{-5}\ l$ of blood.

(3) In scientific form, $490\times10^{-5}\ l=4.9\times10^{-3}\ l$.

Tom:

(1) In a week, a female flea consumes $7\times 1.4 \times 10^{-5}\ l=9.8\times10^{-5}$ of blood.

(2) $50$ female fleas consume $50 \times 9.8 \times10^{-5}\ l=490\times10^{-5}\ l$ of blood week.

(3) In scientific form $490\times10^{-5}\ l=4.9\times 10^{-7}\ l$.

Which of the following statements is true?

Answer 1: 

Tom solved the first two steps correctly, but the third step is wrong.

Answer 2: 

Juraj correctly solved the first two steps, but the third step is wrong.

Answer 3: 

Tom solved the problem correctly.

Answer 4: 

Both made a mistake in the third step.

Correct Answer: 
Answer 1
Hint: 

Juraj’s solution is correct. Tom made a mistake in step (3). Tom incorrectly shifted the decimal point when converting a number to a scientific format.