Question

The average distance from Earth to Mars is 2.25×108
km, and the distance from Earth to Neptune is 4.3514×109
km. How much farther is Neptune from Earth than Mars? Express your answer in scientific notation. Do not round your answer.(1 point)

1 answer

To find how much farther Neptune is from Earth than Mars, we can subtract the distance from Earth to Mars from the distance from Earth to Neptune.

Given:

  • Distance from Earth to Mars = \( 2.25 \times 10^8 \) km
  • Distance from Earth to Neptune = \( 4.3514 \times 10^9 \) km

Now we perform the subtraction:

\[ \text{Distance from Earth to Neptune} - \text{Distance from Earth to Mars} = (4.3514 \times 10^9 \text{ km}) - (2.25 \times 10^8 \text{ km}) \]

First, we need to express the distances with the same exponent. We can convert \( 2.25 \times 10^8 \) km to a distance with \( 10^9 \):

\[ 2.25 \times 10^8 \text{ km} = 0.225 \times 10^9 \text{ km} \]

Now we can perform the subtraction:

\[ 4.3514 \times 10^9 \text{ km} - 0.225 \times 10^9 \text{ km} = (4.3514 - 0.225) \times 10^9 \text{ km} \]

\[ = 4.1264 \times 10^9 \text{ km} \]

So, the distance from Earth to Neptune is \( 4.1264 \times 10^9 \) km farther than the distance from Earth to Mars.

In scientific notation:

\[ \text{Neptune is } 4.1264 \times 10^9 \text{ km farther from Earth than Mars.} \]