Which one of the following variables is assigned with valid literals?

The selection of the variable that is assigned with valid literals rests on the compatibility of the data type with the assigned values. In this case, the correct response involves the variable ( salary2 ), which is of data type double.

When a double data type is assigned a literal such as ( 2.96E-2 ), it is perfectly valid. The notation ( E ) (or ( e )) signifies scientific notation, which is commonly used to represent very large or very small numbers. In this case, ( 2.96E-2 ) translates to ( 2.96 \times 10^{-2} ), or ( 0.0296 ). A double variable can indeed hold this value because it can accommodate fractional numbers, including those produced by scientific notation.

In contrast, the other choices involve attempts to assign values to integer or long data types that are incompatible with the literals. Specifically, assigning a floating-point number (like ( 5000.50 ) or ( 1.2E6 )) to an int or a long is invalid, as these types can only hold whole numbers. The scientific notation ( 1E-6 ) is also a floating-point representation,