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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.
For example, in the real numbers, the squaring operation only produces non-negative numbers; the codomain is the set of real numbers, but the range is the non-negative numbers. Operations can involve dissimilar objects: a vector can be multiplied by a scalar to form another vector (an operation known as scalar multiplication), [13] and the ...
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.
This helps to simplify mathematical computations by reducing the number of basic arithmetic operations needed to perform calculations. [48] The additive identity element is 0 and the additive inverse of a number is the negative of that number. For instance, + = and + =. Addition is both commutative and associative.
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 than zero. A number is strictly negative if ...
This notation may be used when it is desired to emphasize the positiveness of a number, especially in contrast with the negative numbers (+5 versus −5). The plus sign can also indicate many other operations, depending on the mathematical system under consideration.
As an example, −6 + 4 = −2; because −6 and 4 have different signs, their absolute values are subtracted, and since the absolute value of the negative term is larger, the answer is negative. Although this definition can be useful for concrete problems, the number of cases to consider complicates proofs unnecessarily.
The field of real numbers can be defined specifying only two binary operations, addition and multiplication, together with unary operations yielding additive and multiplicative inverses. The subtraction of a real number (the subtrahend) from another (the minuend) can then be defined as the addition of the minuend and the additive inverse of the ...