Question

Find (4.54 x 10^8) - (3.98 x 10^8). When you regroup the decimals, what do you notice about their difference? How does this affect the non-exponent of the difference?

Answer 1

To regroup the decimals, rewrite the numbers in scientific notation with the same exponent. Subtract the decimals and keep the non-exponent the same.

Step-by-step explanation:

When subtracting numbers in scientific notation, we need to make sure that the exponents are the same. In this case, we have (4.54 x 10^8) - (3.98 x 10^8).

To regroup the decimals, we need to rewrite the numbers in scientific notation with the same exponent.

We can rewrite (4.54 x 10^8) as (0.454 x 10^9) and (3.98 x 10^8) as (0.398 x 10^9). Now, we can subtract the decimals: (0.454 - 0.398) = 0.056.

The non-exponent of the difference remains the same, which is 10^9.