Ally can be naughty or nice. So Ally's parents have said
"If you are nice we will add 3 points (+3). If you are naughty, we take away 3 points (-3). When you reach 30 Points you get a toy."
Ally starts the day with 9 Points:
Ally's Mum discovers spilt milk: 9-3 = 6
Then Dad confesses he spilt the milk and writes "undo". Mum calculates: 6-(-3) = 6+3 = 9
So if you subtract a negative, you gain points
(ie the same as adding points). This fun example was copied and pasted from the following website:
http://www.mathsisfun.com/positive-negative-integers.html
Since, I spent my early school years convinced I couldn't understand math, this is a new discovery to me. It makes me want to fall in love with math. Now, I've known that two negatives make a positive when you're working with words but the fact that it also applies to numbers is delightfully new to me. This mathematical truth has waited a long time for me to stumble into it. Maybe, I just wasn't ready until today.
At 8:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, it stared back at me from a white board. Disbelieving, I asked for clarification. This just can't be. I couldn't even hear the explanation. It was as if the teacher were speaking another language but a beautiful one just beyond comprehension. My mind sat in awe. Beauty was hiding behind these numbers, some form of mysterious poetic justice. In the distance, I could hear faintly the music of the spheres. Something wondrous and amazing was standing before me.
As a small cadre of sullen students slid out the door, I lingered to ask the teacher to explain this mystery further. He drew a box and said that "This box contains positive numbers. If you try to subtract a negative number from the positive box, you can not. No negatives exist within it."
My mind raced along some new continuum where two negatives were busy making a positive. I felt like I'd discovered a secret alien race that has long lived amongst us. I left the classroom with a silly grin covering my face. After that miracle of clarity, the day was sprinkled with the dust of pixies. Two negatives had clashed and cancelled each other out. In the act of that oblivion, they'd created a positive.
Now, if I could only apply this to everything. Imagine starting the day in a bad mood. Suddenly you meet someone else who is also in a bad mood. In this moment of connection the negative moods cancel each other out. Two negatives become a pair of happy optimists having a great day.
This negation of the negatives could have global applications but then again, we are living on a finite earth, with finite resources and an infinite number of problems. Some how the math doesn't add up. Those problems often defy any resolution short of a miracle. This beautiful math truth seems to represent an ideal that can not always be applied to a broader and more chaotic existence. No matter. Great beauty still resides in this beautiful math fact. It filled my day with hope. Just maybe, the world has yet to stumble across the truth that will solve todays problems. We can hope.
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