Question

The sum of two numbers is negative. The product of these two same numbers is also negative. What can you conclude about these two numbers? Be as specific as you can. Give an example of two numbers that meet these requirements.

Answer 1

5 and -8

Explanation:

One number must be negative since the product of the 2 number is negative (5 x -8 = -40). They both cannot be negative, if they were the product would then be positive. The negative number must have a absolute value that is larger than the positive, the negative numbers distance from 0 must be larger than the positive, -8 has a distance of 8 and 5 has a distance of 5. The sum of the two numbers is

=5 + (-8)

=5 - 8

= -3