What is a negative number?
Q: What is a negative number?
A: A negative number is a number that indicates an opposite. For example, if a positive number is distance up, then a negative number is distance down. If a positive number means addition, then a negative number means subtraction.
Q: How is a negative number written?
A: A negative number is written by putting a minus sign, "−", in front of the positive version of the same number. For example, 3 is a positive number and −3 is its corresponding negative version.
Q: What are signed numbers?
A: Signed numbers or integers are the set of all positive numbers, negative numbers and zero taken together. Zero itself does not have any particular sign as it can be considered its own opposite; so +0 = −0.
Q: Where do we find negative numbers on the real line?
A: Negative numbers are found to the left of zero on the real line.
Q: What happens when you add two opposite signed numbers together?
A: When you add two opposite signed numbers together they always cancel each other out and result in 0; for example -3 + 3 = 0 or 3 + (-3) = 0.
Q: Is there another way to represent all the negative real numbers?
A: Yes, all the negative real numbers can also be represented as R−{\displaystyle \mathbb {R} _{-}} .
