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10. The average weight of an elephant is 1.15 * 10 ^ 4 pounds. The average weight of a cat is 14 pounds. How much heavier is an elephant than a cat? Express your answer in scientific notation.

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1 answer

To find out how much heavier an elephant is than a cat, we need to subtract the weight of a cat from the weight of an elephant.

Elephant weight = 1.15 * 10 ^ 4 pounds
Cat weight = 14 pounds

Hence, the difference in weight is:

1.15 * 10 ^ 4 pounds - 14 pounds

To subtract these numbers, we need to convert the weight of the cat to scientific notation:

14 pounds = 1.4 * 10 ^ 1 pounds

Now we can subtract:

1.15 * 10 ^ 4 pounds - 1.4 * 10 ^ 1 pounds

To subtract numbers in scientific notation, we need to have the same exponents (powers of 10). Let's convert the weight of the cat to have an exponent of 4:

1.4 * 10 ^ 1 pounds = 0.14 * 10 ^ 4 pounds

Now we can subtract:

1.15 * 10 ^ 4 pounds - 0.14 * 10 ^ 4 pounds

To subtract these numbers, we subtract the coefficients (1.15 - 0.14) and leave the exponent the same:

1.01 * 10 ^ 4 pounds

Therefore, an elephant is 1.01 * 10 ^ 4 pounds heavier than a cat.