SOLUTION: How do I solve this word problem? National Debt: In December of 2005, the U.S. national debt was approximately 8.1 x 10 with exponent 12 dollars. At that time, the population of

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Question 94862: How do I solve this word problem?
National Debt: In December of 2005, the U.S. national debt was approximately 8.1 x 10 with exponent 12 dollars. At that time, the population of the U.S. was 2.98 x 10 with exponent 8 people. In December of 2005, what was the U.S. debt per person?
Answer by checkley71(8403) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
8.1*10^12/2.98*10^8 now we take each factor separately;
first the numeric values:
8.1/2.98=2.718
now we take the powers of 10
10^12/10^8=10^(12-8)=10^4
now combine these two factors:
2.718*10^4 or $27,180 debt per person in the USA.