Negative Numbers and the Number Line: Practice

A negative number is less than zero and is written with a minus sign in front of it.

$-6 < 0$

The values $4$ and $11$ are positive, and $0$ is neither, so the only negative number is $-6$.

In the numeral $-3$, the sign in front shows that the number is negative, so it is read with the word "negative."

$-3 = \text{"negative three"}$

Zero splits the line. The positive numbers run to the right of zero.

$\text{negatives} \;\leftarrow\; 0 \;\rightarrow\; \text{positives}$

So the negative numbers run to the left of zero.

The opposite of a number sits the same distance from zero, on the other side. The number $7$ is seven units right of zero, so its opposite is seven units left.

$\text{opposite of } 7 = -7$

Reflecting a number across zero gives its opposite. Only the number sitting exactly at zero stays in place when reflected.

$\text{opposite of } 0 = 0$

So zero is the only number that is its own opposite.

Every negative number lies to the left of every positive number, so a negative is always less than a positive.

$-2 < 3$

Integers are the whole numbers and their negatives, the numbers that land right on the ticks of the line.

$-5 \text{ is an integer}$

The values $\tfrac{1}{2}$, $2.7$, and $3.1$ fall between the integer ticks, so they are not integers.

Points to the right of zero are positive, and the count gives the size.

$3 \text{ ticks right of } 0 = 3$

Zero is the dividing point between the two sides of the line, the reference from which above and below are measured.

$0 \text{ is neither positive nor negative}$

Zero sits exactly at the fold of the line, so reflecting it across zero leaves it in place.

$\text{opposite of } 0 = 0$

The more negative a number, the farther left it sits. The point $-9$ is nine steps left of zero, while $-2$ is two steps left.

$-9 < -2$

So $-9$ is farther to the left.

The two numbers are identical, so they sit at the same point on the line.

$-5 = -5$