High level math

[Enzo]

I was taking a little science quiz in the newspaper, topic math. And I got one wrong, and I am wondering if I ran into a bit of mathematical pedantry or if I am missing some fundamental concept.

The question:
What is the sum of the largest negative integer and the smallest positive integer?

MY mind says that integers are the numbers from 0 to 9. So the largest negative integer would be -9, and the smallest positive integer would be +1. Zero being neither positive nor negative. Adding -9 and +1, I get -8.

Their answer: zero (-1 and +1)


Is there a standard that says negative numbers are smaller the larger they get? To me, polarity is irrelevant to size. In electronics, I'd much rather get a shock from -10 volts than the (to me) much larger -100 volts. Amplitude is the measure of larger and smaller, while sign is just a direction. Am I wrong? To me -1 is not "larger" than -9.


There is a small minority in electronics who use such an odd approach, they associate going towards the negative as reducing and going positive as increasing. Crossing zero becomes irrelevant to them. Most of us in the game are not comfortable telling someone to "reduce" the voltage from -100 to -300 volts.


From here, it is 300 miles to Cleveland, so I guess it must be -300 miles coming back? I see it as 300 miles away. regardless of which way we are going.

[Мастер]

I got the same answer.

By the usual definition, the integers include 0, 5, 281, -3,752, 21,542,895, etc. Not just 0 to 9.

So the smallest positive integer is one, everyone seems to agree on that. There is no largest positive integer; if you have a large, positive integer, just add one, and you have a larger positive integer.

There is this ambiguity about what "large" and "small" mean with negative numbers; however, I was able to determine which one they meant, because if you go by magnitude, there is no "largest negative integer". So they must be using the mathematical ">" relation, i.e., -1>-2. So by this definition, the largest negative integer is -1.

So that's the process I went through.

[Enzo]

Fair enough.

Now that I think about it, they said "integer", and I thought "digits". I made that mistake.


and thanks.