Numbers can be really surprising. Imagine you're sharing cookies among friends, if there are zero friends, how many cookies does each one get? That’s like dividing by zero, and it doesn’t make sense because we can't split things with no people to share them with. Then there are negative numbers, they’re like going backwards on a number line. If you owe someone 3 cookies instead of having them, that's -3!
Examples
- Owing your friend 3 cookies means you have -3 cookies.
- Going backward on a number line is like counting backwards.
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See also
- Why Do Numbers Behave So Strange Sometimes?
- Why Do Numbers Sometimes Act Like They’re Running Away?
- Why Are Some Numbers 'Magic' in Math?
- What are mathematical expressions?
- What are twenty digits?