Final answer:
Aligning both numbers by the decimal point and add them to get a total of 158.36, but round the sum to the nearest tenth, resulting in 158.4.
Step-by-step explanation:
To add 58.4 and 99.96 together, you can follow these steps:
- Align the numbers by their decimal points.
- Add each column starting from the rightmost digit and moving left.
- When adding the columns, carry over any value more than 9 to the next column on the left.
- Keep only as many decimal places as the number with the fewest decimal places, in this case, one decimal place (due to 58.4).
- Combine the numbers to get a preliminary result: 158.36
However, since we want to limit our answer to the tenths place, round the sum to 158.4 by dropping the last digit.
Therefore, the sum of 58.4 and 99.96, rounded to the tenths place, is 158.4.