Question

On April 22, 2017, the United States National Debt was at about 2.0 x 10^13dollars. The United States federal tax revenue was at about 3.3 x 10^12 dollars.After taxes were collected, how much of the national debt was still remaining?

Answer 1

We need to compute 2.0 x 10^13 minus 3.3 x 10^12. The first number can be expressed as follows:

$2.0\cdot10^{13}=2.0\cdot10\cdot10^{12}=20\cdot10^{12}$

Subtracting:

$20\cdot10^{12}-3.3\cdot10^{12}=(20-3.3)\cdot10^{12}=16.7\cdot10^{12}=1.67\cdot10^{13}$

1.67 x 10^13 dollars still remains of the national debt.