Question

On April 22, 2017, the United States National Debt was at about 2.0 x 10^13dollars. The United States federal tax revenue was at about 3.3 x 10^12 dollars.After taxes were collected, how much of the national debt was still remaining?

Answer 1

We need to compute 2.0 x 10^13 minus 3.3 x 10^12. The first number can be expressed as follows:

`2.0\cdot10^(13)=2.0\cdot10\cdot10^(12)=20\cdot10^(12)`

Subtracting:

`20\cdot10^(12)-3.3\cdot10^(12)=(20-3.3)\cdot10^(12)=16.7\cdot10^(12)=1.67\cdot10^(13)`

1.67 x 10^13 dollars still remains of the national debt.