To find out how much heavier a grain of rice is than a strand of hair, we can subtract the mass of the strand of hair from the mass of the grain of rice.
- Mass of a strand of hair: \( 2.17 \times 10^{-5} \) ounces
- Mass of a grain of rice: \( 0.002 \) ounces, which can be expressed in scientific notation as \( 2.0 \times 10^{-3} \) ounces.
Now, let's perform the subtraction:
\[ \text{Mass difference} = \text{Mass of rice} - \text{Mass of hair} \]
\[ = (2.0 \times 10^{-3}) - (2.17 \times 10^{-5}) \]
To perform the subtraction, it helps to have both numbers in the same power of ten. We can convert \( 2.0 \times 10^{-3} \) to have the same exponent as \( 2.17 \times 10^{-5} \):
\[ 2.0 \times 10^{-3} = 200 \times 10^{-5} \]
Now we can do the subtraction:
\[ 200 \times 10^{-5} - 2.17 \times 10^{-5} = (200 - 2.17) \times 10^{-5} = 197.83 \times 10^{-5} \]
Now we convert this back to scientific notation:
\[ 197.83 \times 10^{-5} = 1.9783 \times 10^{-3} \]
Thus, a grain of rice is approximately:
\[ \boxed{1.9783 \times 10^{-3}} \text{ ounces heavier than a strand of hair.} \]
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