I need math to go away and quit ruining my life.

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rabbittss
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07 Feb 2012, 9:26 pm

While I really do appreciate everyone trying to help.. looking for help with this is not really the reason why I posted the thread. I'm simply extremely frustrated by the fact that my two crappy C's in math seem to be more important to the school than the 6 A's I've gotten in my other classes.They won't even let me take any of my science classes without passing these math pre-reqs first.



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07 Feb 2012, 9:31 pm

Maybe you could look at it like this. You have the usual number line, with zero in the middle, and it goes on infinitely in both directions.

<----------(-3)----(-2)----(-1)----(0)----(1)----(2)----(3)---------->

Now, when you are told to add two numbers, A and B, it works like this. The FIRST number represents a position on the number line. The SECOND number represents how far you should move, and in what direction.

6 + 4
Start at 6, move 4 to the right
You end up at 10

6 - 4
6 + (-4)
Start at 6, move 4 to the left
You end up at 2

4 - 6
4 + (-6)
Start at 4, move 6 to the left
You end up at -2

5 + 0
Start at 5, don't move at all
You end up at 5

-5 + 7
Start at -5, move 7 to the right
You end up at 2

-7 - (-6)
-7 + 6
Start at -7, move 6 to the right
You end up at -1

-8 - 2
Start at -8, move 2 to the left
You end up at -10

So that explains addition and subtraction. Multiplication and division are harder to explain using this concept. But you can just remember:
POS × POS = POS
NEG × POS = NEG
POS × NEG = NEG
NEG × NEG = POS
And the same holds for ÷.