Given in the question:
a.) Houston area = 2.69 x 10^5 square miles
b.) Greensboro area = 1.21 x 10^3 square miles
To be able to subtract the two areas in scientific notation, we must first make them similar in terms of the exponent.
We get,
Let's now proceed with the subtraction,
The difference between the area of Houston and Greensboro is 2.6779 x 10^5.