How Do You Multiply and Divide Numbers with Different Signs?

How Do You Multiply and Divide Numbers with Different Signs?

Note:

A positive times a positive is a positive. A negative times a negative is a positive. What about a negative times a positive? This tutorial gives you the answer by showing you how multiply (and divide!) with mixed signs.

Keywords:

  • problem
  • skill
  • multiplication
  • times
  • sign
  • sign of product
  • negative
  • positive
  • divide
  • division

Background Tutorials

  • Understand the absolute value of a rational number as its distance from 0 on the number line; interpret absolute value as magnitude for a positive or negative quantity in a real-world situation.

      • What Does Absolute Value Mean?What Does Absolute Value Mean?

      What Does Absolute Value Mean?

      In this tutorial you'll see how you can think of absolute value in a very intuitive way. Let us know if you have any questions about it!

  • Understand that multiplication is extended from fractions to rational numbers by requiring that operations continue to satisfy the properties of operations, particularly the distributive property, leading to products such as (-1)(-1) = 1 and the rules for multiplying signed numbers. Interpret products of rational numbers by describing real-world contexts.

      • How Do You Figure Out the Sign of a Product or Quotient?How Do You Figure Out the Sign of a Product or Quotient?

      How Do You Figure Out the Sign of a Product or Quotient?

      Multiplying and dividing numbers takes a good amount of thinking, and it's easy to make a mistake. But you can make sure that you're on the right track if you check whether the answer should be positive or negative. In this tutorial you'll see exactly how to tell if your answer will be positive or negative, even if you don't know the exact value of the answer. That way you'll always be able to check your answers!

Further Exploration

  • Know and apply the properties of integer exponents to generate equivalent numerical expressions.

      • What are Exponents?What are Exponents?

      What are Exponents?

      Did you know that another word for 'exponent' is 'power'? To learn the meaning of these words and to see some special cases involving exponents, check out this tutorial!

  • Give examples of linear equations in one variable with one solution, infinitely many solutions, or no solutions. Show which of these possibilities is the case by successively transforming the given equation into simpler forms, until an equivalent equation of the form x = a, a = a, or a = b results (where a and b are different numbers).