A certain insect is approximately 4 * 10 ^ - 2 inches long. A second insect is about 1.3 * 10 ^ - 1 total length of the two insects in inches? Use scientific notation to express your answer to 1 decim

Answer 1

To find the total length of the two insects, we can add their lengths together.

In scientific notation, the length of the first insect is 4 * 10^(-2) inches.
The length of the second insect is 1.3 * 10^(-1) inches.

We can add the two lengths to get the total length:
4 * 10^(-2) + 1.3 * 10^(-1)

To add these two numbers, we need to convert them to the same power of 10. Since 10^(-1) is the larger power of 10, we can express the first insect's length in terms of 10^(-1):
4 * 10^(-2) = (4/10) * 10^(-1) = 0.4 * 10^(-1)

Now we can add the two lengths:
0.4 * 10^(-1) + 1.3 * 10^(-1) = 1.7 * 10^(-1)

So the total length of the two insects is approximately 1.7 * 10^(-1) inches.