Question

Godel is asked to perform the addition problem below. Godel believes that because there are more negative numbers, the answer will be negative. Part a: Explain if his reasoning is correct.Part b :Solve -7+12-3+9+(-5)

Answer 1

`-7+12-3+9+(-5)=6`

Godbel is wrong in the reasoning as the answer does not depend on the number of negative numbers in the expression. Instead it depends on the value of the sum of positive terms and the value of the sum of negative terms. If the values of sum of positive terms is greater than the value of the sum of negative terms then the answer will be a positive and vice versa.

Explanation:

Given expression:

`-7+12-3+9+(-5)`

To evaluate the expression.

Solution:

We have:
`-7+12-3+9+(-5)`

Removing parenthesis first as a positive and negative multiply to give a negative.

⇒
`-7+12-3+9-5`

Then we can group the positives and negatives together.

⇒
`12+9-7-3-5`

⇒
`21-7-3-5`

Since the negatives combine by getting added up with the sum being negative, so we have:

⇒
`21-15`

As, we can see the positive value (21) is greater than the negative value (15) and hence the answer would be a positive.

⇒ 6

Godbel is wrong in the reasoning as the answer does not depend on the number of negative numbers in the expression. Instead it depends on the value of the sum of positive terms and the value of the sum of negative terms. If the values of sum of positive terms is greater than the value of the sum of negative terms then the answer will be a positive and vice versa.