And why do negative numbers exist?
EDIT: thank you all so much for answering. I actually understand now. I wish they explained it this simply in school 😭
In: 4
1) Dividing by numbers larger than 1 makes the number smaller. (1/2, 1/4, 1/8) Dividing a number by 1 doesn’t change the number at all (1/1, 2/1) so it makes sense that dividing by numbers smaller than 1 makes the number larger (1/0.5, 1/0.25). Same thing goes for multiplication but in the other way: multiplying by numbers larger than 1 makes the number bigger, but multiplying them by a number smaller than 1 makes the number smaller.
2) Because they’re extremely useful. You can’t have “negative sheep” in a pen, but when you’re keeping track of something that can flip between two states (debit/credit, positive/negative, above sea level / below sea level) then it’s far simpler to just note one half of the scale as negative and keep the math simple. That way, you can easily draft more money out of your bank account than it contains if you have to, and you know exactly how much you have to pay back until you’re back at even zero.
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