a certain insect is approximately 4×10 to the power of -2 inches long a second insect is about 1.3×10 to the power of -1 inches long what is the total length of the two insects and inches use scientific notation to express your answer to one decimal place

To find the total length of the two insects, we need to add their lengths together:

1st insect: \(4 \times 10^{-2}\) inches
2nd insect: \(1.3 \times 10^{-1}\) inches

First, we can express both numbers in a comparable format. We can rewrite \(1.3 \times 10^{-1}\) in terms of \(10^{-2}\):

\[ 1.3 \times 10^{-1} = 1.3 \times 10^{-1} \times \frac{10^{1}}{10^{1}} = 1.3 \times 10^{-1} = 13 \times 10^{-2} \]

Now we can add the two lengths together:

\[ 4 \times 10^{-2} + 13 \times 10^{-2} = (4 + 13) \times 10^{-2} = 17 \times 10^{-2} \]

Next, we need to convert \(17 \times 10^{-2}\) into proper scientific notation, which requires the coefficient to be between 1 and 10:

\[ 17 \times 10^{-2} = 1.7 \times 10^{1} \times 10^{-2} = 1.7 \times 10^{-1} \]

So the total length of the two insects in scientific notation is:

\[ \boxed{1.7 \times 10^{-1}} \text{ inches} \]