Final answer:
The national debt of $17.7 trillion is expressed in scientific notation as 1.77 x 10^13, and the cost of college at $50,000 is expressed as 5 x 10^4. By dividing these two numbers, we find that approximately 354 million free college educations could be funded by the $17.7 trillion debt.
Step-by-step explanation:
Expressing Numbers in Scientific Notation
The national debt and the cost of tuition can both be expressed in scientific notation, which is a way of writing numbers that are too large or too small to be conveniently written in decimal form.
Part A: National Debt in Scientific Notation
The national debt of $17.7 trillion is written in scientific notation as 1.77 × 1013.
Part B: College Cost in Scientific Notation
Four years of tuition costing approximately $50,000 is expressed in scientific notation as 5 × 104.
Part C: Calculating Free College Education find out how many college educations can be provided for $17.7 trillion, we divide the national debt in scientific notation by the cost of college in scientific notation:
×13 / 5 × 104 = 3.54 × 108, meaning that approximately 354 million citizens could receive a free college education for the amount of the national debt.