Question

Simplify and express the answer in scientific notation: 6.26 x 10-4 - 12.52 x 10-8

Answer 1

To subtract, we have to put them both into same powers of 10.

Let's change first number to power of -8.

`6.26*10^(-4)=62600*10^(-8)`

Now we subtract the number and tag along a 10 to the power -8.

So,

`\begin{gathered} 62600*10^(-8)-12.52*10^(-8) \\ =62587.48*10^(-8) \end{gathered}`

In proper scientific notation, it will be

`6.258748*10^(-4)`