Chapter 1.2, Problem 98E

To determine

To find: how much was each person’s share of the debit.

Answer to Problem 98E

  $\text{4}\text{.299}\times {\text{10}}^4$ .

Explanation of Solution

Given information:

As of July 2010, the population of the United states was $3.070\times {10}^8$ , and the national debt was $1.320\times {10}^{13}$ dollars.

Concept used:

Scientific notation:

A notation in which a given quantity can be expressed as a number with significant digits required for a specified degree of accuracy and multiplied by 10 to the appropriate power.

Calculation:

Consider the statement,

The population of United States in July 2010 was,

  $3.070\times {10}^8$

The national debt was,

  $1.320\times {10}^{13}$

Find how much the debt each person’s share of the debt.

Every person’s individual share of the debt is the total debt divided by the population.

Therefore,

  $\begin{array}{c}d=\frac{1.320\times {10}^{13}}{3.070\times {10}^8}\\ =\frac{1.320}{3.070}\times \frac{{10}^{13}}{{10}^8}\\ =0.4299\times {10}^5\text{Cancel}\text{out}\text{the}\text{common}\text{terms}\\ \text{=4}\text{.299}\times {\text{10}}^4\end{array}$