Saturday, October 20, 2007
signed numbers
operations with signed numbers

combining terms
I'm working with numbers, question as :
5 + 8 = 13
7 - 4 =3
are straight forward. However if a question such as "6 - 9 =" presents itself we have a problem.

Let's examine this problem in terms of money. What if you had $6.00 and i had to pay out $9.00you would have to go into debt by $3.00. in other words you would still owe $3.00 (after giving up the $6.00 had). We will write this as -$3.00 using a minus in front of the number 3.

There for (...) 6 - 9 = 3

Ex. The following question can be read as :


2 - 6
*i have 2 * *and i owe 6*

combining these, results in owing 4.

There for (...) 2 - 6 = -4

Ex. How could we interpret the following?
-3 + 5 =
ANSWER : i owe 3 and i have 5. The result is I have 2.


There for (...)
-3 + 5 = 2 or +2
Any amount that i have is a whole number or a number with a plus sign in front of it. this is Known as a POSITIVE NUMBER (+)


Similarly, any amount that i owe would be written with a minus sign in front of it. Such a nimber is known as a NEGITIVE NUMBER.


The number zero (0) is a considered to be neither. Each item, whether it be an amount we have (positve value) or an amout we owe (negitive value) is called a Term. these question are all about Combining terms to come up with the end result.

Once again i had nothing better to do =/



 
posted by Jahmal at 9:14 p.m. | Permalink |


2 Comments:


  • At 12:50 p.m., Blogger Jahmal

    (after giving up the $6.00 you had).
    My bad

     
  • At 11:35 a.m., Blogger Ms. Armstrong

    Jahmal,
    When you 'borrow' information from another person you need to give them credit for the work that they did. I have a feeling that you did not write this entry entirely from your own head so you need to acknowledge the original author by saying something like "this information was originally written by..." or put in a link to the original website.

    It's good information that you've presented to the class, just give credit where it is due and some day someone will credit your work with the same respect.