Which of the following is a correct step in the process of adding 8.0 x 10^ -2 and 6.0 x 10^ -3
the answer is (8.0+0.6)x10^-2, but i was hoping someone could explain how considering one is raised to the second power while one is raised to the third.

Explanation:

In order to compute correctly the sum of the two terms, we have to rewrite one of them such that they have the same exponent.

The two terms are:

For instance, we can re-write the second term such as it also has a power . In order to do that, we have to move the decimal point one place to the left, therefore:

At this point, the two numbers have the same exponent, so we can just add them together by adding the bases and keeping the same exponent, -2:

ice to water 1 water to vapour 2 latent heat