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)

Responses

$1.0183×1024
1.0183 dollars times 10 superscript 24 baseline

$3.0015×1013
3.0015 dollars times 10 superscript 13 baseline

$2.9219×1013
2.9219 dollars times 10 superscript 13 baseline

$2.9219×10^11

1 answer

To find how much the U.S. national debt increased from 1971 to 2021, we will 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 need to express both values in the same exponent for easier subtraction. We can rewrite \(3.98 \times 10^{11}\) in terms of \(10^{13}\):

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

Now, we can subtract the two values:

\[ \text{Increase in debt} = (2.9617 \times 10^{13}) - (0.0398 \times 10^{13}) \]

Now perform the subtraction:

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

Thus, the increase in the U.S. national debt over the 50-year period is \(2.9219 \times 10^{13}\).

So the answer is:

$2.9219×10^{13}$.