If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website.

If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.

Main content

Adding numbers with different signs

Use a number line to add 15 + (-46) + 29. Created by Sal Khan and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education.

Want to join the conversation?

  • female robot amelia style avatar for user dniel.jayprim
    is a + times a + a negative
    (351 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
  • blobby green style avatar for user meereshgirdhani
    (Positive) x (Positive) = (Positive)
    (Negative) x (Negative) = (Positive)
    (Negative) x (Positive) = (Negative)
    if u like my suggestion pls upvote
    (44 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
  • female robot ada style avatar for user Learner
    Hi,
    I am Abia and I want to ask a question of my rs aggarwal book of class 6 Ex-4B question no. 4 iii
    the question is add (-103)+312
    I did it like this: 312-103=209
    but now also I have little bit confusion.
    Bye.
    (20 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
  • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user Taylor Dunfee
    For the 15-46, can you do 46-15 and make it negative?
    (11 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
  • blobby green style avatar for user 245138
    I still don't get adding negative numbers with positive numbers.Can someone please help me.
    (7 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
    • hopper cool style avatar for user junkanoo
      Maybe it might help if you drew out a number line for basic examples! If you are using a number line to help you, when you see a negative sign for a number, that means you are going back the same number of hops that the number is on the number line. You do the reverse for a positive number. I'm also going to go through another example. If you had the problem -91+93, here is how you would solve it. On a number line, 91 is 91 hops to the left of 0. 93 hops is 93 hops to the right of zero. When adding negative and positive numbers, you always want to stay close to the number 0. The difference between the numbers 91 and 93 is two. When you add +93 to -91, you can easily get to 0 by changing the 93 to a 91. -91+91 is 0. To get back to 93 from 91, you have 2 left over. You are allready at 0 from your fake number line. 0+2=2, so -91+93=2.
      Hope this helps 245138!
      (10 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user thunderking1233
    I don't get negative and positive I need more clarification.
    (9 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
    • starky seedling style avatar for user toko fukawa
      a positive number is above zero, a negative number is below zero. i'll give an example if you'd like.
      you have 20 dollars, but you spend 30. ( yes, that's possible in some banks. ) you'd have -10 dollars, and you'd be in debt

      i know I'm late, but i hope this helped.
      (5 votes)
  • duskpin tree style avatar for user whiteele
    So you subtract when it says to add a negative
    (6 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
    • winston baby style avatar for user Sam
      Yes, because if you have, lets say, 6+(-5) then you would subtract the 5 from the 6. the + would kind of turn into a subtraction sign, and the negative sign would go away. (At least that's how I think about it). I hope this helped!
      (7 votes)
  • primosaur seedling style avatar for user Deereeek
    ⢀⣤⠖⠒⠒⠒⢒⡒⠒⠒⠒⠒⠒⠲⠦⠤⢤⣤⣄⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⠟⠀⢀⠠⣐⢭⡐⠂⠬⠭⡁⠐⠒⠀⠀⣀⣒⣒⠐⠈⠙⢦⣄⠀⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⣰⠏⠀⠐⠡⠪⠂⣁⣀⣀⣀⡀⠰⠀⠀⠀⢨⠂⠀⠀⠈⢢⠀⠀⢹⠀⠀
    ⠀⣠⣾⠿⠤⣤⡀⠤⡢⡾⠿⠿⠿⣬⣉⣷⠀⠀⢀⣨⣶⣾⡿⠿⠆⠤⠤⠌⡳⣄
    ⣰⢫⢁⡾⠋⢹⡙⠓⠦⠤⠴⠛⠀⠀⠈⠁⠀⠀⠀⢹⡀⠀⢠⣄⣤⢶⠲⠍⡎⣾
    ⢿⠸⠸⡇⠶⢿⡙⠳⢦⣄⣀⠐⠒⠚⣞⢛⣀⡀⠀⠀⢹⣶⢄⡀⠀⣸⡄⠠⣃⣿
    ⠈⢷⣕⠋⠀⠘⢿⡶⣤⣧⡉⠙⠓⣶⠿⣬⣀⣀⣐⡶⠋⣀⣀⣬⢾⢻⣿⠀⣼⠃
    ⠀⠀⠙⣦⠀⠀⠈⠳⣄⡟⠛⠿⣶⣯⣤⣀⣀⣏⣉⣙⣏⣉⣸⣧⣼⣾⣿⠀⡇⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠘⢧⡀⠀⠀⠈⠳⣄⡀⣸⠃⠉⠙⢻⠻⠿⢿⡿⢿⡿⢿⢿⣿⡟⠀⣧⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⢦⣐⠤⣒⠄⣉⠓⠶⠤⣤⣼⣀⣀⣼⣀⣼⣥⠿⠾⠛⠁⠀⢿⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⠦⣭⣐⠉⠴⢂⡤⠀⠐⠀⠒⠒⢀⡀⠀⠄⠁⡠⠀⢸⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⠲⢤⣀⣀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠒⠒⠒⠉⠀⢀⡾⠀
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠛⠲⠦⠤⠤⠤⠤⠴⠞⠋1
    (7 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
  • blobby green style avatar for user muzna
    a negative + a positive = what ?
    (2 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
    • hopper cool style avatar for user Krish918
      It depends on the numbers given. For instance, if you had -2+4, it would equal positive 2. But if you had -4+2, the answer would be -2.

      So in addition problems: If the negative number has a greater absolute value than the positive number, your answer will result as a negative.

      Hope this helps!
      (5 votes)
  • leafers ultimate style avatar for user Quinn
    I thought absolute value can never be negative, so how is it the absolute value is negative 2? Or is that just the distance between the two numbers which is the absolute value?
    (2 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user

Video transcript

Find the sum 15 plus negative 46 plus 29. Let's just think about this first part over here where we have 15 plus negative 46. And we'll worry about the plus 29 later on. So let's just do 15-- let me do that in a different color-- plus negative 46. I'll do it in that orange. Let me draw a number line here, just so we can properly visualize what is going on. That's my number line. And we're starting at 15. So let's draw a 0 over here. And so we're starting at 15. 15 could be right over here. So this is 15. Let me draw a big fat arrow to signify this is 15. 15 has an absolute value of 15, so the length of this arrow would be 15. Now we're adding negative 46 to that 15. This is equivalent to 15 minus 46, which means we are going to move 46 spots to the left of 15. A negative sign or a minus means we're moving to the left on the number line. So we're going to move 46 to the left. We're starting at 15, and we are going to move 46 to the left. So the length of this arrow right here is going to be 46, and we're moving to the left. This is the negative 46 that we're adding to the 15. We're going to end up at some point over here. That point is clearly 0. Because we were 15 to the right. Now we're going to move 46 to the left. So we're definitely going to be to the left of 0. It's definitely going to be a negative number. And we can even think about the absolute value of that negative number. We can just visualize it. This yellow arrow has a length of 15. This orange arrow has a length of 46. The blue arrow that I'm about to draw, which is the sum of these two, is going to have this length right over here. And just visually, how can we figure out the length of this blue part if we know the length of this orange part and we know the length of this yellow part? Well, it's just going to be the difference. It's just going to be the difference of these two. So the absolute value of the sum is going to be the difference between this length, 46, and 15. Let me just figure that out, 46 minus 15. 6 minus 5 is 1. 4 minus 1 is 3. So the length of this is going to be 31, and it's going to be 31 to the left of 0. So this is going to be negative 31 right over here. We know that this first part over here is negative 31, and then to that we are going to add 29. So we're going to add 29. Let me do that in another color. What does that mean? That means that we're going to start at negative 31, and we're going to move 29 to the right. We're adding 29, so we're going to move 29 to the right. So maybe that gets us right about there. I'm trying to draw an arrow of length 29. I can draw a cleaner looking arrow than that. I'll do it right over here, actually. So then we're going to move 29 over to the right. That's the 29 part. Now this is a positive 29, and so how do we figure out what this is? This is 29 right here that we're adding. This is going to land us right over here on the number line. So how do we figure out what number that is? Well, once again, we can just visualize it. And eventually you won't have to draw number lines and stuff, but I think it'll be useful here. We're starting at negative 31. We're adding 29 to it, so it's going to make it less negative. But we're still adding less than 31, so we're not going to get all the way back to 0. We're still going to have a negative number. But how could we figure out the absolute value of that negative number, its distance? Well, once again, that little white part right there, that white part plus this 29, is going to equal 31, if you just think of absolute value, if we don't think about the signs, if we just think about the length. Or another way to think about it, 31 minus 29 will give us the length of that white part. And of course, it's going to be negative, because the negative number here is larger than the positive number. And we're adding the 2. If we do 31 minus 29, you could borrow and all of that, but that's clearly just going to be equal to 2. You could say that's 11. This is a 2. You subtract, this is equal to 2. But since it's negative 31 plus 29, it's going to be a negative 2. We're still going to stay negative. We haven't moved far to the right enough to pass 0. So this right here is going to be negative 2. Or another way to think about it, the length of this white bar, the absolute value, is going to be 2. 2 plus 29 is 31. But we're operating to the left of 0, so it's negative 31. This is negative 2. Anyway, hopefully you found that useful. And let me make it clear. Our final answer is negative 2.