Arithmetic Grade Five

Lesson Thirty-two: Negative Numbers

When you subtract a large number from a small number, the answer will be negative. 


	4 - 9 = -5
On a number line this problem looks like this:

The green dot represents the 4 in the problem. The red line represents the 9 in the problem (since it is nine units long). The red dot represents the answer to the problem.

Here's another example: 


	4 - 5 = - 1
Here's the number line version of this problem:

The green dot represents the 4 in the problem. The red line represents the 5 in the problem (since it is five units long). The red dot represents the answer to the problem.

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