The U.S. national debt was $2.9617×10^13 in 2021 and $3.98×10^11 in 1971. Find how much the debt increased in the 50-year period. (1 point)

Question

Responses

$2.9219×1011
2.9219 dollars times 10 superscript 11 baseline

$3.0015×1013
3.0015 dollars times 10 superscript 13 baseline

$1.0183×1024
1.0183 dollars times 10 superscript 24 baseline

$2.9219×10^13

Answer 1

To find out how much the U.S. national debt increased from 1971 to 2021, we can subtract the 1971 debt from the 2021 debt.

Given:

• National debt in 2021 = \( 2.9617 \times 10^{13} \)
• National debt in 1971 = \( 3.98 \times 10^{11} \)

First, we convert \(3.98 \times 10^{11}\) to the same exponent as \(2.9617 \times 10^{13}\):

\[ 3.98 \times 10^{11} = 0.0398 \times 10^{13} \]

Now we can subtract the 1971 debt from the 2021 debt:

\[ 2.9617 \times 10^{13} - 0.0398 \times 10^{13} = (2.9617 - 0.0398) \times 10^{13} = 2.9219 \times 10^{13} \]

Thus, the increase in national debt over the 50-year period is:

\[ \boxed{2.9219 \times 10^{13}} \]