Reams of paper produced:
First year: 4.3 x10^9
Second year: 8.1 x10^9
To find how many reams of paper were produced in the first two years, we need to add the quantities from both years:
[tex]4.3\times10^9+8.1\times10^9[/tex]Since both quantities have the term 10^9, we can factor it as follows:
[tex](4.3+8.1)\times10^9[/tex]Now we only add the numbers 4.3 and 8.1, the result of the sum is 12.4:
[tex]12.4\times10^9[/tex]Answer: 12.4x10^9 reams of paper
