Video narration
Why does subtracting a negative seem to send you the other way? On a number line, subtracting moves left; subtract a negative, and you move right by that distance. That's because subtraction changes to addition: rewrite a minus b as a plus the opposite of b. An integer is a whole number, a negative whole number, or zero. With addition, matching signs mean add distances from zero and keep the sign. Different signs: subtract the smaller distance from the larger, keep the farther number's sign. Equal distances make zero. Negative five plus two is negative three. Addition and subtraction track signed changes; multiplication and division use sign pairs. Matching signs give a positive result; different signs give a negative one. For division, the divisor must not be zero; division by zero is undefined. So from negative three, subtracting negative two means adding positive two: you move right to negative one.