The frequencies to which the ear responds vary by a factor of $10^3$ . Suppose the speedometer on your car measured speeds differing by the same factor of $10^3$, and the greatest speed it reads is 90.0 mi/h. What would be the slowest nonzero speed it could read?

Video Transcript

This is College Physics Answers with Shaun Dychko. To say that two things vary by a factor of 10 to the 3 is to say that when you divide them, dividing them will give you 1000. So if we are gonna find the lower possible speed that the speedometer could measure, we could solve for it by multiplying both sides by v l and dividing both sides by 10 to the 3. So the lowest possible speed will be the highest speed divided by a 1000 so 90.0 miles per hour divided by 1000 is 0.0900 miles per hour.