Question 78173: I am having a hard time with negative and positive numbers. Can you please help me by simplifying this problem?
-(-(-7))
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! A negative sign really tells you that you are going to use the opposite number. So if you're at 5 on the number line, then -5 means you're going to the opposite side of 5 (which is -5). So -(-5) means the opposite of -5, which is 5 (we're going back now). So in this case, we have
-(-(-7)))
Lets do the inside:
The opposite of -7 is 7 so we get:
-(-(-7)))=-(7)=-7
So -(-(-7))) simplifies to -7
The rule is when you have 2 negatives, they make a positive (it's like they cancel out)
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