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-5, just do 7-2 and add the negative sign to get the answer. Hope this helps.

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Darion Mohr

Lvl 9
2y ago
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Ayden Lebsack

Lvl 10
3y ago

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Wiki User

16y ago

The old rule of thumb is "take the sign away from the larger number, subtract the smaller number from the larger, and put back the sign"

So, looking at 2-4, 4 is the larger magnitude number and 2 is the smaller. The negative sign is on the 4, so park it somewhere temporarily and write the new problem as (larger - smaller); that is, 4 - 2, which anyone can do. The answer is 2, then put back the minus sign that was temporarily set aside, giving you a final answer of -2.

Or, try 7 - 19. 19 is larger, so park the minus sign and compute 19-7 = 12. Put back the minus sign and the answer is -12. Believe it or not, it's what you're doing with a "normal" subtraction problem, it's just that you don't generally write the + sign. For example, if you had 9 - 5, the 9 is the larger number and has a (hidden) + sign in front of it. So, it's really +9 -4. Park the + sign, subtract 9 - 5 = 4, and put the + sign back to get +4.

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Anonymous

Lvl 1
4y ago

-2

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Q: What is the sum of -2 (-4)?
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