When you subtract a negative number does it become positive?

If you subtract a negative number, the two negatives combine to make a positive.

What happens when you add a positive number to a negative number?

Adding a positive number plus a negative number: Drop the plus sign, turning the problem into subtraction. Adding two negative numbers: Drop both minus signs and add the numbers as if they were both positive; then attach a minus sign to the result.

What is adding a negative number equivalent to?

Adding negative numbers When you combine a negative number with a positive one, the sum will be less than the original number—so you might as well be subtracting. So 6 + -7 is the same thing as 6 – 7, and they both equal -1.

What happens when you subtract a negative number?

Rule 3: Subtracting a negative number from a negative number – a minus sign followed by a negative sign, turns the two signs into a plus sign. So, instead of subtracting a negative, you are adding a positive. So we’re changing the two negative signs into a positive, so the equation now becomes -2 + 4.

Why does a negative plus a negative equal a positive?

Using the fact multiplication is commutative, a negative times a positive is also negative. Similarly, we can prove that a negative times a negative is a positive. Since we know that −ab is negative, and the sum of these two terms is 0, therefore (−a) × (−b) is positive.

Does adding negative numbers matter order?

From your earliest days of math you learned that the order in which you add two numbers doesn’t matter: 3+5 and 5+3 give the same result. The same is true for the addition of any finite set of numbers. For instance, in calculus you encounter series, which are infinite sums.

What does negative minus positive equal?

):( Positive number minus a negative number switches the double negative to a positive; add the two numbers and it equals a positive number. ):( Negative number minus a positive number, adds the numbers, and keeps the negative sign.

What is subtracting a negative the same as?

Find out why subtracting a negative number is the same as adding the absolute value of that number.

Why does a negative plus a negative equal a negative?

When you are adding a negative number to a negative number, it becomes subtraction, where you start from a negative point on the numbers line and move left. This reads “negative three plus negative 2”. You need to ignore the plus sign and recognize that the second negative means you are subtracting that number.