Question

One student says -5 is bigger than -4 and uses money as the analogy: “If I owe $5, I have a bigger debt than if I owe $4.” What is wrong with this argument?

Answer 1

-5 is not larger than -4.

Explanation:

Think of a number line. The absolute value of -5 is 5, meaning -5 is 5 away from 0 to the left. On the other hand, -4's absolute value is 4, meaning -4 is 4 away from 0 to the left. In the money scenario, owing $5 is a bigger debt because the absolute value is larger, not the number itself. Hope this helps!!

Answer 2

This is a bad argument because when talking about negative numbers, the closer the numbers are to 0, the bigger they are. -4 is closer to 0 than -5, so -4 is the bigger number.

Explanation: