Interactive · 1 question

Properties of Multiplication: Negative Times Positive

When you are multiplying a negative number and a positive number, the product will be a negative number. This is one of the special cases for multiplying positive and negative numbers together.

Negative Number times a Positive Number: Example: -5 x 3. Step One: Determine the sign (negative times positive = negative) Step Two: Pretend the numbers are positive and multiply (5 x 3 = 15) Step Three: Solution! (negative 15 = -15)

Image by Caroline Kulczycky

Let's do another example.

What is 13×(−3)?13\times (-3)?

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Video · + 1 min read

(Video) Integer Multiplication and Division

by Math Antics

Summary\large{\text{Summary}}

Multiplication with integers is the exact same as multiplication with whole numbers, but we need to find what sign to put on our final answer. A negative sign will change the sign of the answer. For instance, a single negative sign in the problem will change the answer from a positive number to a negative number. Two negative signs in the problem will change the answer from a negative number to a positive number.

He uses the example 3×53 \times 5 and all of it's positive and negative variations. We're going to look at two of them: −3×53×−5\begin{align} -3 &\times 5\\ 3&\times -5 \end{align} First, we need to find 3×53 \times 5. 3×5=153\times 5 = 15 Now we need to find our sign for the answer. Both of our problems have one negative sign, so its going to change the answer from a positive number to a negative number. −3×5=−153×−5=15\begin{align} -3 \times 5 &= -15\\ 3 \times -5 &= 15 \end{align}

Try one for yourself:

What is 4×−44 \times -4?

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Interactive · 1 question

Negative times positive is always negative

Negative numbers change the sign of an expression. For each negative number in it, an expression's sign will change once (it always starts out as positive). This means that an expression with one negative number (like multiplying a negative number by a positive one) will always turn out negative.

Otherwise, though, multiplying with negative numbers works just like multiplying positive numbers. I like to split the process up into two steps:

Step 1: Multiply the numbers.

Step 2: Worry about the signs.

Let's try it with 4×−24 \times -2.

Step 1: Multiply the numbers.

Since we're ignoring signs right now, we can pretend that both the numbers are positive. So, we can just multiply the same way we would if we were using positive numbers.

What is 4×24 \times 2?

Choose one answer

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