To find out how much steel Summerfield Steel expects to sell this year, we first need to add the amounts sold to private businesses and government agencies from last year:
- Amount sold to private businesses: \(6.5 \times 10^4\) pounds.
- Amount sold to government agencies: \(2.5 \times 10^5\) pounds.
Now, let's add these two amounts together:
\[ 6.5 \times 10^4 + 2.5 \times 10^5 \]
To add these two numbers, we need a common exponent. We can convert \(6.5 \times 10^4\) to the same power of ten as \(2.5 \times 10^5\):
\[ 6.5 \times 10^4 = 0.65 \times 10^5 \]
Now we can add:
\[ 0.65 \times 10^5 + 2.5 \times 10^5 = (0.65 + 2.5) \times 10^5 = 3.15 \times 10^5 \]
Now, they expect to sell 3 times the total amount this year:
\[ 3 \times (3.15 \times 10^5) = 9.45 \times 10^5 \]
Thus, the amount of steel they expect to sell this year in scientific notation is:
\[ \boxed{9.45 \times 10^5} \text{ pounds} \]
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