Bryan and Jeanette were playing an integer card game, similar to the one you played in class. They were practicing adding and subtracting integers.
Jeanette had a score of -10. Bryan took away one of Jeanette's cards and showed it to her. It was a -8. Jeanette recalculated her score to be -2, but Bryan disagreed. He said that her score should be -18 instead.
Read their conversation and answer the question below:
Bryan: "No Jeanette, removing a negative card means the same thing as subtracting a positive. So negative 10 minus negative eight is negative eighteen."
Jeanette: "It does not! Removing a negative card is the same as adding a positive card. My score will go up. Negative 10 minus negative 8 is negative 2."
Based on their disagreement, who, if anyone, is right? Explain.
Answer (2)
Jeannette is correct in this situation. You cannot subtract a negative number from anything. If you ever end up having two negative signs in a row, you must revert them to a positive (add). In this case: -10 - (-8) = -10 + 8 When adding a positive to a negative, you can use the commutative property to know that this is the same as simply subtracting 10 from the positive integer 8 :
10 - 8 = -2 ********
If you need further explanation, let me know. Hope this helps!
~ ArchimedesEleven *
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Jeanette is correct; removing a negative card is effectively adding a positive number. Her score after removing the -8 card is -2, not -18. Bryan is mistaken in his calculations.
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