negitives

I used to have an issue with them too but I think of them as ice cubes now and understand them. It takes one regular number to melt an ice cube. As long as I remember that, I don’t have a problem.

Negative 12 is like 12 ice cubes

Negative 3 is like 3 ice cubes

Which one is greater? Well 12 ice cubes is more then 3 ice cubes so if you subtract you have 9 ice cubes or a negative 9. Adding would get you 15 ice cubes or a negative 15.

A regular 12 plus a negative 12 results in what?

The answer is 0 because a regular number melts an ice cube - they zap each other so 12 plus negative 12 = 0

Like wise if it is negative 12 plus 3 you would get negative 9. Because only 3 ice cubes get zapped leaving 9 ice cubes left over .

Understand?

Hopefully this helps :)