{"id":9814,"date":"2017-01-25T23:50:12","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T22:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathedup.co.uk\/?p=9814"},"modified":"2017-01-26T00:12:22","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T23:12:22","slug":"minus-or-negative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mathedup.co.uk\/minus-or-negative\/","title":{"rendered":"Minus or Negative?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of misconceptions around negative numbers (see\u00a0this post<\/a>) and\u00a0I sometimes wonder if this is down to confusion caused by the language we use\u00a0when describing a number that is below zero.\u00a0I know some maths teachers interchange between calling something negative or minus depending on the situation or the mood they are in. Outside of the maths classroom, the word “minus” is used frequently\u00a0and almost always when describing temperature. Is it correct though?<\/p>\n

I put a poll on Twitter to try and find out what other maths teachers think and the results were surprising for me. More than half of the teachers, it seems, have a different view to me..<\/p>\n

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Maths teachers: How do you say the number “-5”?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mo Ladak (@MathedUp) January 24, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n