Answer:
3.76 × 10^4
Step-by-step explanation:
<em>1. Work out what they are.</em>
1.26 × 10^4 = 12600 (check your calculator to see if I'm right)
To get this, I multiplied 1.26 by 10,000. This is because 10^4 is 10000 (it has 4 zeros). Or you could move the decimal point forward 4 spaces.
2.50 × 10^4 = 25,000
By doing the same thing above.
<em>2. Add them together</em>
12,600 + 25,000 = 37,600
<em>3. Change the answer into its scientific notation</em>
To do this we need to divide 37,600 by a number to make it less than 10, but still keeping the digits. This always ends in zeros by the way (e.g. 100, 1,000, 100,000).
37600 ÷ 10,000 = 3.76
Next:
Scientific notations always have times 10 to the power of something (× 10^x). So we put that in:
3.76 × 10^x what is x?
x is the number of of times you multiply by 10 to get back to 36700. This is 4 times.
(This is the same as multiplying by 10,000 as it has 4 zeros. This is also the same as moving the decimal point 4 spaces)
So your final answer is: 3.76 × 10^4