Asked by diddy

Mark needs to find the sum of 7.2 * 10 ^ - 3 and 3.6 * 10 ^ - 5
What are two ways Mark can start?
Mark could either rewrite 7.2 * 10 ^ - 3 with the power ?
▼ or he could
rewrite 3.6 * 10 ^ - 5 with the power ?
▼

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
He can change one term so both have the same power of 10.

- Rewrite 7.2 × 10^-3 with the power 10^-5: 7.2 × 10^-3 = 720 × 10^-5.
Then 720 × 10^-5 + 3.6 × 10^-5 = 723.6 × 10^-5 = 7.236 × 10^-3.

- Or rewrite 3.6 × 10^-5 with the power 10^-3: 3.6 × 10^-5 = 0.036 × 10^-3.
Then 7.2 × 10^-3 + 0.036 × 10^-3 = 7.236 × 10^-3.

So the sum is 7.236 × 10^-3.