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Class 6 The Other Side of Zero: cheat sheet
CBSE Mathematics. Numbers below zero: placing integers on the number line, comparing them, and adding and subtracting with lifts, temperatures and money.
Key ideas
- Integers are …, −3, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, 3, …; numbers to the right on the number line are bigger.
- Among negative numbers, the one closer to zero is bigger: −1 is more than −7.
- A number and its opposite add to zero: 5 + (−5) = 0.
- Adding a negative number moves left; adding a positive number moves right.
- Subtracting a number is the same as adding its opposite: 3 − (−4) = 3 + 4 = 7.
- Real uses: floors below ground, temperatures below 0 °C, money owed in a bank account.
Remember
| Opposites | a + (−a) = 0 |
| Subtracting | a − b = a + (−b) |
| Change in temperature | later − earlier, e.g. 5 − (−3) = 8 degrees |
Watch out
- Saying −7 is bigger than −1.
- Forgetting that subtracting a negative makes the answer bigger.
- Ignoring the sign when finding the difference between two temperatures.
Worked example
Arrange in increasing order: −29, 24, 15, −7, −1.
Working: smallest (furthest left on the number line) first
Answer: −29, −7, −1, 15, 24
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