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This thermometer is indicating a negative Fahrenheit temperature (−4 °F). In mathematics, a negative number is the opposite of a positive real number. [1] Equivalently, a negative number is a real number that is less than zero. Negative numbers are often used to represent the magnitude of a loss or deficiency.
In elementary mathematics, the additive inverse is often referred to as the opposite number, [3] [4] or its negative. [5] The unary operation of arithmetic negation [6] is closely related to subtraction [7] and is important in solving algebraic equations. [8] Not all sets where addition is defined have an additive inverse, such as the natural ...
Plain text, programming languages, and calculators also use a single asterisk to represent the multiplication symbol, [6] and it must be explicitly used; for example, 3x is written as 3 * x. Rather than using the ambiguous division sign (÷), [ a ] division is usually represented with a vinculum , a horizontal line, as in 3 / x + 1 .
To find the number of negative roots, change the signs of the coefficients of the terms with odd exponents, i.e., apply Descartes' rule of signs to the polynomial = + + This polynomial has two sign changes, as the sequence of signs is (−, +, +, −) , meaning that this second polynomial has two or zero positive roots; thus the original ...
This identification can be pursued by identifying a negative integer (where is a natural number) with the additive inverse of the real number identified with . Similarly a rational number p / q {\displaystyle p/q} (where p and q are integers and q ≠ 0 {\displaystyle q\neq 0} ) is identified with the division of the real numbers identified ...
One of the widely used types of impossibility proof is proof by contradiction.In this type of proof, it is shown that if a proposition, such as a solution to a particular class of equations, is assumed to hold, then via deduction two mutually contradictory things can be shown to hold, such as a number being both even and odd or both negative and positive.
In the case of negative real numbers, the largest real part is shared by the two nonreal cube roots, and the principal cube root is the one with positive imaginary part. So, for negative real numbers, the real cube root is not the principal cube root. For positive real numbers, the principal cube root is the real cube root.
The algebra of sets is the set-theoretic analogue of the algebra of numbers. Just as arithmetic addition and multiplication are associative and commutative, so are set union and intersection; just as the arithmetic relation "less than or equal" is reflexive, antisymmetric and transitive, so is the set relation of "subset".