The order is: Apollo CSM, autonomous drone, jet boat, sports car. Since all of these values are in scientific notation, we can look at the power of 10 to compare. The speeds of the Apollo CSM and autonomous drone both have the highest power of 10 (\(10^4\)), so they are fastest. The Apollo CSM is faster than the drone because 3.99 is greater than 2.1. Similarly, the jet boat is faster than the sports car because their speeds both have the same power of 10 (\(10^2\)) but 5.1 is greater than 4.15.
The autonomous drone is faster than the rocket sled. In scientific notation, the rocket sled’s speed is \(1.0326\cdot 10^4\), and the drone’s speed is \(2.1 \cdot 10^4\) and 2.1 is greater than 1.0326.
To find how many times as fast the Apollo CSM is than the sports car, we are trying to find out what number times \(4.15\cdot 10^2\) equals \(3.99 \cdot 10^4\). So we are trying to compute \(\frac{3.99\cdot 10^4}{4.15\cdot 10^2}\). Since we are estimating, we can simplify the calculation to \(\frac{4 \cdot 10^4}{4 \cdot 10^2}\). Using exponent rules and our understanding of fractions, we have \(\frac{4 \cdot 10^4}{4 \cdot 10^2} = 1\cdot 10^{4-2} = 10^2\), so the Apollo CSM is about 100 times as fast as the sports car!

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