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Positive and Negative Integers

You must have an understanding of positive and negative integers and how they react when they are added, subtracted, multiplied and divided by each other. Look at the number line below. Positive integers exist to the right of the zero and negative integers exist to the left of the zero.

Adding Positive and Negative Integers

Subtracting Positive and Negative Integers

When you are adding and subtracting positive and negative integers, you must know what to do when two signs are directly beside each other.

Try these sample questions. The answers are below.

1) 5 – 9 =
2) – 4 + 6 =
3) – 5 – 2 =
4) 2 – 7 =
5) –2 + 5 =
6) 1 – 9 =
7) 4 – (+6) =
8) –2 –(-4) =
9) + 3 – (-6) =
10) 6 + (-4) =
11) 6 + (+2) =
12) -3 + (-2) =

Multiplying and Dividing Positive and Negative Integers

While multiplying and dividing positive and negative integers, remember the rules that apply to adding and subtracting integers with two signs directly beside each other.

You should break questions like this into two steps.

Step 1: Solve the equation ignoring the signs.

If you ignored the + and – signs in front of the numbers you would end up with the answers above.

Step 2: Determine the + / - sign. The rules about + / - integers come into play. If there are two + signs, then the equation is positive. If there are two – signs, then the equation is also positive. If there is one + and one – sign, then the equation is negative.

The final answers are displayed in blue above.

Sample Questions

Try these sample questions. The answers are posted below.

a) 3 x (– 6) =
b) – 2 x (-9) =
c) – 18 ÷ (–9) =
d) 7 x 7 =
e) –72 ÷ 8 =
f) –12 x (– 9) =
g) 7 x (-6) =
h) –28 ÷ (-4) =
i) 16 ÷ (-4) =
j) 3 x (-4) =
k) -45 ÷ (-15) =
l) -3 x (2) =

Answers to Sample Questions