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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.
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 it is less than zero. A number is positive if it is greater than ...
Negative numbers are usually written with a negative sign (a minus sign). As an example, the negative of 7 is written −7, and 7 + (−7) = 0. When the set of negative numbers is combined with the set of natural numbers (including 0), the result is defined as the set of integers, Z also written .
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 ...
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.
In computing, signed number representations are required to encode negative numbers in binary number systems. In mathematics, negative numbers in any base are represented by prefixing them with a minus sign ("−"). However, in RAM or CPU registers, numbers are represented only as sequences of bits, without extra symbols.
The essential definition of a negative number is that it represents an opposite. The problem with using "less than" to define negative is that it is a circular definition. The definition of "less than", in most books, is that a < b if and only if a - b is negative.