The land area of the United States is about 4 × 106 square miles. The land area of Japan is about 2 × 105 square miles. About how much larger is the United States than Japan?



Answer :

Answer:

3.8 × 10⁶

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how much larger the US is than Japan, we need to subtract the land area of Japan from the land area of the US.

Given information:

  • Land area of the United States ≈ 4 × 10⁶ square miles
  • Land area of Japan ≈ 2 × 10⁵ square miles

Therefore:

[tex](4 \times 10^6) - (2 \times 10^5)[/tex]

In scientific notation, if we shift the decimal point one place to the left, we increase the exponent by 1. Therefore, we can express 2 × 10⁵ as 0.2 × 10⁶:

[tex](4 \times 10^6) - (0.2 \times 10^6)[/tex]

Now, factor out the common multiple 10⁶:

[tex](4-0.2) \times 10^6[/tex]

Simplify:

[tex]3.8 \times 10^6[/tex]

So, the United States is about 3.8 × 10⁶ larger than Japan.

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