Question

taxes :2.69 * 10 ^ 5 square miles Rhode Island:1.21 * 10 ^ 3 square miles Determine the differences in square miles between the area Texas and the area Rhode Island. write your answer in scientific notation

Answer 1

Explanation:

The difference is:

$2.69\cdot10^5-1.21\cdot10^3$

To solve this we need the exponent of 10 be the same for both terms of the substraction. It is better is we change the exponent of the area of Texas, by moving the decimal point two places to the right:

$2.69\cdot10^5-1.21\cdot10^3=269\cdot10^3-1.21\cdot10^3$

Now we can substract the numbers and leave the 10³ out:

$269\cdot10^3-1.21\cdot10^3=(269-1.21)\cdot10^3=267.79\cdot10^3$

Scientific notation has always only one place with a number before the decimal point. Therefore 267.79x10³ is not in scientific notation, we have to move the decimal point two places to the left and add 2 to the exponent of 10:

Answer:

The difference is 2.6779 x 10⁵ square miles