At the end of fiscal year 2004, the federal debt of Country C is $278,560,125,000 What is the closest estim amount Express your answer in the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10. (1 point)

The closest estimate to the federal debt of Country C at the end of fiscal year 2004 is $280,000,000,000. This can be expressed as 2.8 x 10^11.

To express the federal debt of Country C in the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10, we need to determine the closest estimate.

The given amount is $278,560,125,000.

To round this amount to the nearest integer power of 10, we need to consider the number of digits. In this case, the given amount has 12 digits.

To round to the nearest integer power of 10, we can keep the first digit (2) and multiply it by 10 raised to the power of 11 (one less than the number of digits).

Therefore, the closest estimate is 2 × 10^11.

To express the given amount ($278,560,125,000) in the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10, we can convert it to scientific notation.

Scientific notation is a way of writing numbers in the form of "a × 10^b," where "a" is a number between 1 and 10 (the digit) and "b" is an integer power of 10. This allows us to express very large or very small numbers in a concise format.

To convert the given amount to scientific notation:

1. Count the number of decimal places from the rightmost non-zero digit. In this case, we have 12 decimal places.

2. Move the decimal point 12 places to the left to get a number between 1 and 10. This gives us 2.78560125.

3. The original number can then be expressed as 2.78560125 × 10^12, where 2.78560125 is the digit and 12 is the integer power of 10.

So, the closest estimate for the given amount, expressed in the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10, is 2.8 × 10^12.