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Originally posted by ChuckElias
Since in math (particularly Algebra and above), "negative" means roughly the same thing as "oppsosite", what's the difference? What's the big deal about "negative"? I honestly don't know and I took a year and a half of college calculus.
Chuck
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There's not much of a difference (my college calculus professor uses both), but negative refers to a number itself, as in "negative five" or "negative twenty-four." Saying "negative x" implies that f(x) is going to be a negative number whether the original x is positive or negative.
In the end, it matters about as much as "switching" or "reversing" the arrow
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