Negative numbers in context
Interpret negative numbers in context (temperature, sea level, bank balance); count forwards and backwards with positive and negative whole numbers, including through zero
What a learner can do afterwards
- Place –3, –1, 0, 2, 5 on a number line
- The temperature is –4°C and rises by 7 degrees. What is the new temperature?
- Count backwards from 3 in ones: 3, 2, 1, 0, –1, –2
1 · Read
Negative numbers sit below zero. You meet them as cold thermometer readings, depths below sea level, or money owed. The further left a number sits, the smaller it is, so -3 sits left of -1 and -10 is colder than -2. Big steps count forward and backward with positive numbers. Counting in ones through zero reaches -1, -2 after 0.
It is -4 degrees C outside. The temperature rises by 7 degrees. Start at -4 and count up 7 steps: -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3. The new temperature is 3 degrees C. Counting backwards through zero goes 3, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2. You can write 3 steps up from -4 as -4 + 3 = -1.
When you count through zero, do not skip it. Counting backwards from 3 goes 3, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2. Zero sits right between the positive and negative numbers.
Negative numbers show cold, low, or owed, and you count through zero one step at a time, forwards or backwards.
Bank practice adapted from Portland Community College materials with unverified terms. Videos by Khan Academy. Zero reading written in repo with no upstream source.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
13 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.