To find out how much heavier a grain of rice is than a strand of hair, you can subtract the mass of the strand of hair from the mass of the grain of rice.
The mass of a strand of hair is given as: \[ 2.17 \times 10^{-5} \text{ ounces} \]
The mass of a grain of rice is given as: \[ 0.002 \text{ ounces} \]
First, we can convert the mass of the grain of rice into scientific notation: \[ 0.002 = 2.0 \times 10^{-3} \text{ ounces} \]
Now we can subtract the mass of the strand of hair from the mass of the grain of rice: \[ (2.0 \times 10^{-3}) - (2.17 \times 10^{-5}) \]
To perform the subtraction, we need to convert \(2.0 \times 10^{-3}\) into a format that has the same exponent as \(2.17 \times 10^{-5}\):
\[ 2.0 \times 10^{-3} = 200 \times 10^{-5} \]
Now we can subtract: \[ 200 \times 10^{-5} - 2.17 \times 10^{-5} = (200 - 2.17) \times 10^{-5} = 197.83 \times 10^{-5} \]
Now we need to convert \(197.83 \times 10^{-5}\) into proper scientific notation: \[ 197.83 \times 10^{-5} = 1.9783 \times 10^{-3} \]
So, the difference in mass, expressed in scientific notation, is: \[ \boxed{1.9783 \times 10^{-3}} \text{ ounces} \]
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