To perform the subtraction \( 8.03 \times 10^{-8} - 2.56 \times 10^{-2} \), we first need to express both numbers in the same power of ten.
The term \( 2.56 \times 10^{-2} \) can be converted to the same power of ten as \( 8.03 \times 10^{-8} \) by rewriting it as:
\[ 2.56 \times 10^{-2} = 2.56 \times 10^{-2} \times \frac{10^{6}}{10^{6}} = 2.56 \times 10^{4} \times 10^{-8} = 25600 \times 10^{-8} \]
Now we can rewrite the original expression:
\[ 8.03 \times 10^{-8} - 25600 \times 10^{-8} \]
Now that both terms are in powers of ten, we can combine them:
\[ (8.03 - 25600) \times 10^{-8} = -25591.97 \times 10^{-8} \]
If you wish to express this in scientific notation, we can rewrite it as:
\[ -2.559197 \times 10^{-4} \]
Thus, the result of the subtraction \( 8.03 \times 10^{-8} - 2.56 \times 10^{-2} \) is approximately:
\[ -2.56 \times 10^{-4} \]