The U.S. national debt was $2.9617×1013 in 2021 and $3.98×1011 in 1971. Find how much the debt increased in the 50-year period. (1 point)

Question

Responses

$2.9219×1011
2.9219 dollars times 10 superscript 11 baseline

$3.0015×1013
3.0015 dollars times 10 superscript 13 baseline

$2.9219×1013
2.9219 dollars times 10 superscript 13 baseline

$1.0183×1024

Answer 1

To find out how much the U.S. national debt increased from 1971 to 2021, we need to subtract the debt in 1971 from the debt in 2021.

1. Debt in 2021: \( 2.9617 \times 10^{13} \)
2. Debt in 1971: \( 3.98 \times 10^{11} \)

First, we can express both amounts in the same exponent:

• Convert \( 3.98 \times 10^{11} \) to have the same exponent as \( 2.9617 \times 10^{13} \):

  \[ 3.98 \times 10^{11} = 0.0398 \times 10^{13} \]

Now we can subtract:

\[ 2.9617 \times 10^{13} - 0.0398 \times 10^{13} = (2.9617 - 0.0398) \times 10^{13} \]

Calculating the subtraction:

\[ 2.9617 - 0.0398 = 2.9219 \]

So, the increase in debt is:

\[ 2.9219 \times 10^{13} \]

Therefore, the answer is:

$2.9219×10^{13}$