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A double negative is a construction occurring when two forms of grammatical negation are used in the same sentence. This is typically used to convey a different shade of meaning from a strictly positive sentence ("You're not unattractive" vs "You're attractive").
In propositional logic, the double negation of a statement states that "it is not the case that the statement is not true". In classical logic, every statement is logically equivalent to its double negation, but this is not true in intuitionistic logic; this can be expressed by the formula A ≡ ~(~A) where the sign ≡ expresses logical equivalence and the sign ~ expresses negation.
But the term "double negative" can sometimes refer to the standard English constructions called litotes or nested negatives, e.g., using "He is not unhealthy" to mean "He is healthy". In some cases, nested negation is used to convey nuance, uncertainty, or the possibility of a third option other than a statement or its negation.
A number is negative if it is less than zero. A number is non-negative if it is greater than or equal to zero. A number is non-positive if it is less than or equal to zero. When 0 is said to be both positive and negative, [citation needed] modified phrases are used to refer to the sign of a number: A number is strictly positive if it is greater ...
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 ...
Some authors use for non-zero integers, while others use it for non-negative integers, or for {–1,1} (the group of units of ). Additionally, Z p {\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} _{p}} is used to denote either the set of integers modulo p (i.e., the set of congruence classes of integers), or the set of p -adic integers .
This thermometer is indicating a negative Fahrenheit temperature (−4 °F). In mathematics, a negative number is the opposite (mathematics) 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 mathematics, the result of the modulo operation is an equivalence class, and any member of the class may be chosen as representative; however, the usual representative is the least positive residue, the smallest non-negative integer that belongs to that class (i.e., the remainder of the Euclidean division). [2]