Math with Bad DrawingsCartoon Archive

Math Pessimism, Edited: Negatives

February 3, 2016

Struggling with negative numbers is edited into joining centuries of mathematicians who found them strange.

Struggling with negative numbers is edited into joining centuries of mathematicians who found them strange. (panel 1 of 2)
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Struggling with negative numbers is edited into joining centuries of mathematicians who found them strange. (panel 2 of 2)
Panel 2Download panel

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Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.

Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2016-02-03-math-pessimism-edited-negatives/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Transcript

[Before] "Ugh! I just don't get how to work with negatives."

[After] "Ugh! I just ~~don't~~ didn't get how to work with negatives… [inserted] find this generalization of the natural numbers awkward and counterintuitive, putting me in the same place as centuries of mathematicians who…"

Topics
Math Culture › Math Anxiety & AttitudesMath Culture › Fixed vs. Growth MindsetNumber & Arithmetic › Integers › Negative NumbersMath Culture › History of Math
Level
All Ages
Themes
Growth MindsetInspirationFor Teachers (Classroom Satire)History & Holidays