Subtract Numbers in Scientific Notation Practice

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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)
km
Remaining Attempts : 3
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1 answer

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

  1. Distance to Mars: \( 2.25 \times 10^8 \) km
  2. Distance to Neptune: \( 4.3514 \times 10^9 \) km

To perform the subtraction, we should first express both distances with the same power of 10.

Rewriting \( 4.3514 \times 10^9 \) km in terms of \( 10^8 \):

\[ 4.3514 \times 10^9 = 4.3514 \times 10^1 \times 10^8 = 43.514 \times 10^8 \]

Now we can perform the subtraction:

\[ 43.514 \times 10^8 - 2.25 \times 10^8 = (43.514 - 2.25) \times 10^8 \]

Calculating \( 43.514 - 2.25 \):

\[ 43.514 - 2.25 = 41.264 \]

Now express this in scientific notation:

\[ 41.264 \times 10^8 = 4.1264 \times 10^9 \]

Thus, the distance that Neptune is farther from Earth than Mars is:

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