Math Story : Negative Numbers

The Negative Bomb Attack

Meanwhile, Uncle Bad and his army are ready. “Boss, you don’t have to go and fight. I can handle them alone”, says Acirho Boss. He doesn’t want Uncle Bad to enter the battlefield. Is this confidence or overconfidence?

Acirho Boss and his gang enter the battlefield chanting their army slogan, “Hail Uncle Bad! We will make everyone sad!” They are ready to face their enemies.

“Alert! Alert! It is about Uncle Bad. He is getting closer and closer to Samper town with his huge army”, informs Mr Messenger. Oh no! Is Uncle Bad planning another attack?

“What? Another attack? Enough of this. We need to teach him a lesson such that this becomes his final attack”, says Cirha. Everyone agrees with her. They decide to put in all their energy and efforts to win this time.

On one side, Uncle Math takes out all his important gadgets. On the other side, Triho trains all his friends to fight the enemies. Everyone is determined to save their home.

Bam! Boom! Crash! The kids fight them bravely. Cirho jumps on Acirhos and blows them off. Cirha manages to jump on Acirho Boss making him fall. Finally, he tastes defeat.

“Arggh! Acirho Boss was useless. Boss, let me go this time”, says Asquarho Boss. Uncle bad decides to give him a chance. “Hail Uncle Bad! We will make everyone sad!” he chants and leaves.

Asquarho Boss and his gang enter the battlefield. They get their powerful laser guns to attack.

Bam! Boom! Crash! The kids fight them bravely. Squarho gathers all his strength and jumps on the villain. Asquarho Boss attacks with his laser gun in return but fails. The strong jump makes him fall. Asquarho Boss finally tastes defeat. The kids are elated.

“Arggh! I had high expectations from Asquarho Boss. He also turned out to be useless. Atriho Boss, you take charge this time. Go, get us victory,” says Uncle Bad. Atriho Boss follows his boss’s instructions and decides to leave with his army.

“Hail Uncle Bad! We will make everyone sad!” chants his army. “Triho, you think you can defeat me? Haha! You will taste defeat today”, says Atriho Boss and attacks him with his powerful bomb gun. Triho manages to save himself. He then attacks him back with his laser gun.

The battle between Triho and Atriho Boss goes on for a while. None of them is ready to give up. “Enough! I will end this now”, says Atriho Boss and takes out his super-powerful number bombs to attack. These number bombs are so powerful that if it touches anyone, it causes severe damage to their body. Will Triho be safe this time?

“Look Atriho Boss is attacking Triho with some strange number bomb whose numbers have a minus sign. What type of numbers are these?” asks Cirha. “These are negative numbers. We use negative numbers to indicate numbers that are less than 0. All the negative numbers have a minus sign as their prefix and are placed on the left side after zero on the number line”, explains Uncle Math.

Bam! Boom! Crash! Atriho Boss attacks Triho with a -5 number bomb. “-5? What kind of a number of this? Is this a trick?” thinks Triho. Somehow he manages to escape this bomb. But the -12 number bomb manages to hit him. He immediately faints. “Haha! I told you, I will end this. Haha!” celebrates Atriho Boss. Oh no! Is Triho alive? How will everyone save him?

Seeing Triho faint on the ground, Cirha comes running. Others join her too. “Triho! Wake up! Wake up”, she cries. But nothing works. Triho is still unconscious. The kids are sad. Can Uncle Math help here? Will he be able to get Triho back to consciousness?

“Do not worry! I will not let anything happen to Triho”, says Uncle Math. Since everybody in Fun Galaxy is a human robot, they can be fixed easily by repairing their parts. Uncle Math musters all the courage and decides to find out which of his parts are injured. He replaces the injured parts with new ones.

Immediately they see him move his eyes. “Umm…” he says. Uncle Math and the kids are relieved seeing Triho come out of danger.

“But there must be a way to deactivate these negative number bombs”, says Squarho. “Yes definitely. We can nullify these negative number bombs by using a positive number bomb of equal value. For example, the -8 number bomb can be cancelled using the +8 number bomb”, says Uncle Math.

Soon, the news of Triho getting back to consciousness spreads in the enemies. “You fool! Why did you leave him like that on the ground? You should have finished him. Enough of your dumbness. I will only have to enter the battlefield now”, says Uncle Bad.

Uncle Bad is standing in front of a spacecraft. It is not his usual spacecraft. Is he planning to attack through this? What is so special about it? “When the number bombs from this fall on them, they will run to save themselves. But will not be safe. Haha! I am Uncle Bad. I make everyone sad”, he says.

“We will not let anything happen to our planet. This is our home and nobody can steal it from us”, says Triho to motivate his friends. It is a do-or-die situation for them.

Both sides are ready today. Who will win? Will the battle end today?

Uncle bad continues to attack. He throws number bombs with -6, -23 and -12. Can you help the kids pick the right number of bombs to nullify the bombs?

Cirha picks the +6 bomb to nullify the -6 number bomb. Squarho picks the +12 bomb to nullify the negative bomb. “There is only a bomb with the number 23 here. The +23 bomb is missing. What do I do?” asks Cirho.

“By default, the sign of a number is always positive. So 23 and +23 are the same”, says Uncle Math. Cirho quickly grabs the bomb with 23 and nullifies the -23 bomb. The kids are doing great. But their bombs are getting over too.

Seeing the kids face him bravely, Uncle Bad decides to try a trick. He knows that the kids are left with a few number bombs. So he attacks them with a -10 number bomb. “Oh no! We do not have a +10 bomb to deactivate. What do we do now?” says Cirha. The kids panic.

“No fear when I am here. We can add two numbers to deactivate this -10 bomb”, says Uncle Math. “But how? We have only these negative and positive bombs left. How can we add a negative number with a positive number?” asks Triho. The kids are confused.

“When we add a negative number with a positive number, we find their difference and use the sign of the larger value in the answer. For example: When I add +15 and -5. The answer will be +10 as we use the sign of the greater number”, says Uncle Math.

The kids now understand and attack Uncle Bad with the +15 and -5 number bomb. Boom! His -10 bomb gets deactivated. The kids are elated. Uncle Bad does not give up.

“Uncle Bad now attacks them with a -4 bomb. Can you help the kids to add two bombs to deactivate this bomb? We can deactivate -4 bomb by adding 8 and -4 bomb”, says Cirho. Uncle Math agrees with him. The kids are smart and quick learners. Boom! Uncle Bad’s -4 bomb is deactivated successfully. The kids are elated.

“Arggh! How are they doing this? I will throw a +14 bomb this time. They will not be able to deactivate it. Haha!” says Uncle Bad and attack them again. “+14? Which bomb do we use now?” says Squarho. “We have -8 and +6 bombs left. When we add them we get -2. We cannot use these”, says Triho. What will they do now? Does Uncle Math have a solution?

“No fear when I am here. We will add two negative numbers this time”, says Uncle Math. “Whenever we add two negative numbers, we just the add the numbers and add a minus sign to the final answer”, he explains.

“-8 and -6 give us -14. Hurrah! We can deactivate Uncle Bad’s bomb now”, says Cirha. Boom! Uncle Bad’s +14 bomb is cancelled using the -14 bomb. The kids are elated.

Uncle Bad is shocked to see this. His last bomb is deactivated too. What will he do now? Taking advantage of this situation, Triho and his friends attack him with their laser guns. Facing one enemy is easy, but facing 4 of them together is not. Will Uncle Bad accept defeat this time?

The powerful laser rays destroy Uncle Bad’s spacecraft making him fall to the ground.

Seeing his enemies overpower him, Uncle Bad has no other option than to surrender. “Leave me! Don’t punish me. I promise to never come back”, he pleads. “He always breaks his promise. How can we trust him?” says Squarho furiously. Should the kids leave Uncle Bad? Should they punish him?

“We will let you go but only on one condition. You need to hand over all your gadgets, weapons, and spacecraft to us”, says Triho. All the friends are proud of Triho’s decision.

Uncle Bad does as asked. He immediately hands over his spacecraft, a remote control that controls all his gadgets and weapons to Uncle Math.

“I will call Mr Police to lock him up in a locker, so that he never breaks his promise”, says Uncle Math and makes the call.

“Hurrah! Finally, we did it”, says Cirha. All are finally happy.

“You all are great! Having learnt all the math concepts helped you fight Uncle Bad bravely. You have saved the entire planet. I do not have words to thank you all”, says Uncle Math emotionally.

“We could do this only because we had a great teacher like you, Uncle Math. You are the best!” say the kids together. Finally, it is time for a grand celebration. Fun Galaxy is out of danger. The citizens can now live peacefully.

Education always helps us fight our enemies and face our fears. Triho and the kids successfully fought their enemies and faced their fears. Are you ready to face yours?

We Learnt That…

Negative numbers indicate numbers that are less than 0.
All the negative numbers have a minus sign as their prefix and are placed on the left side after zero on the number line.
By default, the sign of a number is always positive.
When we add a negative number with a positive number, we find their difference and use the sign of the larger value in the answer.
Whenever we subtract a negative number from a positive number, we change the sign to minus and add their values. The result has the sign of a larger number.
Education always helps us fight our enemies and face our fears.

Let’s Discuss

Who was attacking us again?
Who came into the battlefield first?
How did we defeat Acirho ans Asqurho Boss?
How did Atriho Boss decide to end the battle?
What are negative numbers?
How did Uncle Math help Triho?
How did we deactivate the bombs?
Explain the rules to add and subtract negative numbers.
“Education always helps us fight our enemies and face our fears.” Do you agree? Why or why not?