Eli5 Why is a negative times a negative a positive?

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I’m thinking of it like money. If I owe 5.00 dollars and then a multiply my debt by 5 dollars, I should be in debt by 25 dollars right? But -5 time -5 is 25. Please help.

Edit: my example was wrong sorry.

Edit: I’m still so confused but I think I got it. If I owe someone a dollar (-1). But that person doesn’t exist (-1). Id have my dollar still. Is that right?

In: Mathematics

12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Remember that multiplication is just a bunch of addition.

There’s a couple of things wrong with your discription. First of. If you multiple a dollar by a dollar. You get dollars squares. When you do math you have to do it to the units too. And dollars squares makes no sense.

Anywho, on to the main question. What you example would actually be is “removing 5 dollars of debt five times” in this case *removing* and *debt* are both negative so they cancel out. And in the end you actually gain 25 dollars.

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