Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Additive inverse
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Relation to subtraction == The additive inverse is closely related to [[subtraction]], which can be viewed as an addition using the inverse: :{{math|1=''a'' β ''b'' β=β ''a'' + (β''b'')}}. Conversely, the additive inverse can be thought of as subtraction from zero: :{{math|1=β''a''β=β0 β ''a''}}. This connection lead to the minus sign being used for both opposite magnitudes and subtraction as far back as the 17th century. While this notation is standard today, it was met with opposition at the time, as some mathematicians felt it could be unclear and lead to errors.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cajori |first=Florian |title=A History of Mathematical Notations: two volume in one |date=2011 |publisher=Cosimo Classics |isbn=978-1-61640-571-7 |location=New York |pages=246β247}}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)