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Adding

When you add a positive and negative number, you need to look at the 'size' or 'magnitude' of the number.

-32 has a magnitude of 32 and is negative.

 

The answer will be positive, if the positive number has a bigger magnitude.

The answer will be negative, if the negative number has a bigger magnitude.

 

Subtracting

Remember that subtracting a negative number is the same as adding its positive.

 

When you subtract a smaller number from a larger number, the answer is positive.

When you subtract a larger number from a smaller number, the answer is negative.

 

Examples

6 - 7 is negative

7 - 6 is positive

-6 - 7 is negative

-6 + 7 is positive

-6 - -7 = -6 + 7 which is positive

 

That's lots to take in, so you might like to look back to this introduction again while answering the questions. To do this, just click on the red button on the right of the screen.

20 questions