Multiplying and Dividing Negative Numbers Made Easy

Welcome to understanding positive and negative numbers with Spark.E!Let's start by looking at the number line, which helps us visualize positive and negative numbers.Moving to the right shows positive numbers, while moving to the left shows negative numbers.Zero is our center point - it's neither positive nor negative.Every number has an opposite. Let's look at some pairs of opposite numbers.When we move right on the number line, the numbers increase and become more positive.When we move left, the numbers decrease and become negative.Let's review the basic rules about positive and negative numbers.Now that we understand how positive and negative numbers work on the number line, we're ready to learn about multiplying them.When we multiply a positive number by a negative number, the result is always negative.Let's look at the example: three times negative four.Let's look at some real-world examples where we multiply by negative numbers.In banking, spending four dollars three times results in negative twelve dollars.With temperature, if it drops three degrees five times, the total change is negative fifteen degrees.And in an elevator, going down two floors four times means you've gone down eight floors total.Let's look at the pattern when multiplying with one negative number.Notice that no matter which positive number we multiply by a negative number, the result is always negative.When we multiply two negative numbers together, something interesting happens.Let's look at a pattern to understand this better.This is similar to how double negatives work in language. Just like 'not unhappy' means the same as 'happy', two negative numbers multiplied together give a positive result.Let's look at some more examples of multiplying negative numbers.When we start with a positive number and multiply by a negative, we get its opposite.When we multiply by another negative, we get back to the positive number we started with!Let's reinforce this concept with a few more examples.Division with negative numbers follows similar rules to multiplication.When dividing numbers with the same sign - either both positive or both negative - the result is always positive.The same is true when dividing two negative numbers - the result is positive.However, when dividing numbers with different signs - one positive and one negative - the result is always negative.Let's practice with some examples. Try to solve these before we show the answers.