easy way to remember how to add/subtract negatives?

Question

i have a huge exam tomorrow. i get everything except how to subtract negative numbers! whats an easy way or trick to remember how to do them!

Answer 1

for example, 4--5. that would be 4+5. easy way to remember: if you take two negative symbols, flip one, put them on top of each other, it becomes a + sign.

+ <--one - symbol,
^
|
other negative symbol. It would be less confusing if i saw you in person and i could point with my finger.

Answer 2

If the signs are alike, you add. If the signs are different, you subtract. For ex. -4 - 5 = -9 (You added 4 and 5 and then added a neg. symbol because both of the #s were negative.) 4 -5 = -1 (You subtracted 4 from 5 and then added a neg. symbol because 5 is bigger than 4.)
If you have a subtraction symbol right beside a negative #, the signs become a positive. For ex. -3 --4= 1 (You say -3 plus 4 = 1)

Answer 3

If you subtract a negative, just remember to change the inner minus signs to plus.

For example:
7 - -4
really means
7 + +4 which will equal 11

Another example:
-10 - -5
really means
-10 + +5 which will equal -5

Good luck.

Answer 4

Subtracting Negative Numbers
Remember Double Negitive Equals Positive
9--8 (nine minus negitive eight) is 17
Subtacting Positive
(-1)-(4) you would do plus negative so its 15

Answer 5

funny, im doing that in school too. okay so if you have 2 negatives, thats always a postive. even if your subtracting, adding, dividing multiplying.. but well heres an example

-30 - (-50) well thats a bad example cus 2 negatives next to eachother [the subtraction sign and the negative sign for 50] are changed to plus signs lol. sorry im confusing.

-30 - (50)
okayy. my teacher taught me to take the smaller number, and subtract it from the bigger number. even if 50 was the negative. then if theyre both negatives from the beginning its a plus number or w/e haa and if they were one negative and one positive then its negative number. idk if that helped, because it was pretty hard to explain. sorry if its confusing.

Answer 6

if they are different signs just subtract the numbers and take the sign of the larger number and if you are subtracting two negatives just add them together and put a negative sign out front

Answer 7

+ and - is always -

ex 1) 1 - 6
pretend its 6 - 1 = 5
and just add a - in front of the answer.
it will obviously be less than zero if youre subtracting a larger number from a smaller one.

Answer 8

Multiply them like they are both postitive. Then if it's a positive and a positive then it will be a postiive. If it's a negative and a negative then it will be a negative. If it is a negative and a postive it is negative. So just remember that if they are both the same sign then it is positive but if they are different then it is negative.

Answer 9

make a scale and count up and down it.
I don't use that methode, I use a messed up complicated way that took me years to develope and can't be explained in less than an hour.

a scale looks like this

-10,-9,-8,-7,-6,-5,-4,-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

just count up and down that,
if you had -6+9 you would start on -6 then count 9 to the right.
if you had 2-5 your would start on 2 and count five to the left.

Answer 10

well when subtracting negitive numbers just think of it as subtracting regular numbers except after the problem put a negitive sign

and when adding negitive numbers your really adding postive and put a negitive sign


i hope this helps and i hope im right