Is negative nine greater than or less than negative eleven?

Answer 1

Negative nine is greater than negative eleven. Why? If you had nothing and were in debt for eleven dollars and your mother also had nothing but debt and her debt was nine dollars, who would be richer? Answer: your mother. You see, when she gets some money, she only needs to pay back nine, but you need to pay eleven. Suppose you both received fifteen dollars each. After you have both paid your debts, she is left with six dollars and you only have four. So, it seems that negative numbers ARE real ..... it's called debt. The common confusion in matters like this comes from the fact that an eleven dollar debt is greater than a nine dollar debt, because it is farther from zero. This makes sense to us as it is the usual way of thinking about it. However, in the math class, we think of the number line and when a number is farther to the right it is greater than all the numbers to the left of it.