What is a negative number and how can you have less than nothing?
Zero's Two Directions
What is a negative number and how can you have less than nothing?
"Less than nothing?" you ask, raising an eyebrow. "How can you have fewer than zero apples?" Fair question. Hold that thought — because negative numbers aren't really about having less than nothing. They're about which DIRECTION you're going.
Picture a number line, like a sidewalk painted with chalk. Zero sits in the middle. Walk right, and the numbers climb: 1, 2, 3. But the sidewalk doesn't stop at zero. It keeps going LEFT. Those steps to the left need names too — so we call them negative one, negative two, negative three.
