Negative numbers aren’t easy. Imagine you’re a European mathematician in the 1700s. You have 3 and 4, and know you can write 4 – 3 = 1. Simple. But what about 3-4? What, … See more

Imaginary numbers have a similar story. We can solve equations like this all day long: The answers are 3 and -3. But suppose some wiseguy puts in a teensy, tiny minus … See more

As we saw last time, the equation x2=9really means: or What transformation x, when applied twice, turns 1 to 9? The two answers are “x = 3” and “x = -3”: That is, you can “sc… See more

Let’s dive into the details a bit. When multiplying negative numbers (like -1), you get a pattern: 1. 1, -1, 1, -1, 1, -1, 1, -1 Since -1 doesn’t change the size of a number, just the sign, yo… See more