ShmoopTube

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And here's your shmoop du jour...

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Given the fact that the numbers, represented by variables a and b, are both positive,

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with a greater than b…which of the following expressions has a negative value?

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Here are the potential answers…

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Okay, so what is this question asking?

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It’s really more of a conceptual question than an intricate algebra problem…

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…they just want to make sure we can read and interpret what they’re saying.

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So hopefully it isn’t all Greek to us. Let’s think about this logically.

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We’ve got two numbers, represented by a and b… and they’re both positive.

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a is bigger than b. So by adding, subtracting or multiplying them, we want to wind up with

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a negative number.

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Well, it should be obvious that addition and multiplication are out.

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Adding or multiplying two positive numbers never gets us a negative result.

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We’re now down to just B or C.

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Well, what’s going to get us a negative number?

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Taking a big number and subtracting a smaller number from it?

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Or taking a small number and subtracting a bigger number from it?

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We definitely want to subtract the bigger number… and since we’re told a is bigger…

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…we’re going to want to take b minus a.

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The answer is C.

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As in, “Catty.”

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