ROADS A state highway that is \( 4^{6} \) miles long runs parallel to a smaller country road that is \( 4^{2} \) miles long. How many times longer than the country road is the state highway? Write the answer as a number with a positive exponent.

To find how many times longer the state highway is than the country road, we start by calculating the lengths of both roads using their expressions. The state highway is \( 4^{6} \) miles long, and the country road is \( 4^{2} \) miles long. To find how many times longer the state highway is, we divide the length of the state highway by the length of the country road: \[ \frac{4^{6}}{4^{2}} = 4^{6 - 2} = 4^{4} \] So the state highway is \( 4^{4} \) times longer than the country road. Hence, the final answer is: \[ 4^{4} \]