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

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

6

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

-2