50. EARTH SCIENCE The continents of Earth move at a very slow rate. The South American continent has been moving about 0.000022 mile per year for the past \( 125,000,000 \) years. How far has the continent moved in that time? Write your answer in scientific notation.

To find out how far the South American continent has moved in \( 125,000,000 \) years, we need to multiply the rate of movement by the time period. The calculation is: \[ 0.000022 \text{ miles/year} \times 125,000,000 \text{ years} = 2,750 \text{ miles}. \] To express this in scientific notation, we write \( 2,750 \) as \( 2.75 \times 10^3 \). Therefore, the South American continent has moved \( 2.75 \times 10^3 \) miles in \( 125,000,000 \) years.