From: Suzanne A. (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: May 16, 2000 at 22:17:01
Subject: Re: Negative numbers

My students (middle school) often ask similar questions and I always have to
laugh because they think that there will be a single definitive answer. I
went to the Math Forum's Ask Dr. Math FAQ page:

http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/

and down in the second section there is a link to:

Earliest Uses of Mathematical Symbols
http://members.aol.com/jeff570/mathsym.html

which has some information under "Addition and Subtration" that you might
find useful. It just doesn't exactly pinpoint it, or if it does, I'm not
seeing it.

I thought I would be able to give you more information but hopefully another
mentor will read this and supply the needed information!

 -Suzanne A., for the Teacher2Teacher service

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