Since both numbers have one digit to the left of the decimal point (and the powers of 10 are different), you can tell which is larger by looking at the powers of 10. The number on the right is larger because its power of 10 is greater. The appropriate comparison operator is ...
[tex]9.8\times 10^{4}<2.0\times 10^{5}[/tex]
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You can convert the numbers to ones that have the same exponent, for example, 9.8×10^4 and 20×10^4. Now, you can see that 9.8 < 20.
