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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. A debt that is owed may be thought of as a negative asset.
Negative numbers: Real numbers that are less than zero. Because zero itself has no sign, neither the positive numbers nor the negative numbers include zero. When zero is a possibility, the following terms are often used: Non-negative numbers: Real numbers that are greater than or equal to zero. Thus a non-negative number is either zero or positive.
The non-negative real numbers can be noted but one often sees this set noted + {}. [25] In French mathematics, the positive real numbers and negative real numbers commonly include zero, and these sets are noted respectively + and . [26] In this understanding, the respective sets without zero are called strictly positive real numbers and ...
A number is negative if it is less than or equal to zero. For example, the absolute value of a real number is always "non-negative", but is not necessarily "positive" in the first interpretation, whereas in the second interpretation, it is called "positive"—though not necessarily "strictly positive".
Every real number corresponds to a point on the number line. The following paragraph will focus primarily on positive real numbers. The treatment of negative real numbers is according to the general rules of arithmetic and their denotation is simply prefixing the corresponding positive numeral by a minus sign, e.g. −123.456.
The non-negative real numbers, ... For a given positive real number , the sequence {} of its integral powers has three different fates ...
The whole numbers were synonymous with the integers up until the early 1950s. [23] [24] [25] In the late 1950s, as part of the New Math movement, [26] American elementary school teachers began teaching that whole numbers referred to the natural numbers, excluding negative numbers, while integer included the negative numbers.
If this definition is used, the cube root of a negative number is a negative number. The three cube roots of 1. If x and y are allowed to be complex, then there are three solutions (if x is non-zero) and so x has three cube roots. A real number has one real cube root and two further cube roots which form a complex conjugate pair.