Opposite of a number

- [Voiceover] What I want
to do in this video is

think about what it means to
have an opposite of a number.

Let me draw a number line here.

Let's draw a number line.

And let's put some numbers
on this number line.

We can start at zero,

and if we go to the right
we have positive numbers.

One, two, three, four, five.

As we go to the left we
get more and more negative.

So negative one, negative
two, negative three,

negative four, and I can
keep going on and on and on.

Let's pick one of these numbers.

Let's say that we pick the number three.

What is going to be the
opposite of the number three?

Well the opposite of the
number is a number that's

the same distance from
zero but on the other side.

So three is three to the right of zero.

One, two, three.

So its opposite is going to
be three to the left of zero.

One, two, three.

So the opposite of
three is negative three.

Let me make a little table here.

If we have the number, the number.

And then we have its opposite.

We have its opposite.

So we just figured out that
if you have the number three,

its opposite is going
to be negative three.

Now what if your number is negative?

What if your number, let's
say the number negative four.

What's the opposite of that?

And I encourage you to pause the video

and try to think about it on your own.

Well, you say, okay, negative
four is right over here.

That's negative four.

It is four to the left of zero.

One, two, three, four to the left of zero.

So its opposite is going to
be four to the right of it.

So one, two, three, four.

It's going to be positive.

It's going to be positive four.

So you're probably starting
to see a pattern here.

The opposite of a number is going to be

the opposite sign of that number.

If you have a positive three here,

its opposite is going
to be negative three.

If you start with negative four,

its opposite is going to be positive four.

One way to think about
it, it's going to have the

same absolute value but
have a different sign.

Or another way to think about it is,

however if this is three
to the right of zero,

its opposite is going to be
three to the left of zero.

Or if the number is four
to the left of zero,

its opposite is going to be
four to the right of zero.

So we'll do one last one.

What is the opposite of...

What's going to be the opposite of one?

Well one is one to the right of zero,

so its opposite is going to
be one to the left of zero,

or negative one.

Or another way to think
about it, one is positive

so its opposite is where you're
going to change the sign.

Instead of being positive
it's going to be negative.

It's going to be negative one.

Either way that you can think about it.