McGraw-Hill's Top 50 Skills For A Top Score: ASVAB Reading and Math

Skill 26 Work with Positive and Negative Numbers

For the ASVAB, you’ll need to know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide with positive and negative numbers. Positive numbers are numbers that are greater than 0, such as 6 or 142. Negative numbers are numbers that are less than 0, such as –4 or –18. (See the number line below.) The absolute value of a number is the distance of the number from 0 on a number line. For example, the absolute value of –12 is 12.

• To add numbers with the same sign, add their absolute values. The sum will have the same sign as the numbers you added.

Examples:

• To add numbers with different signs, first find ...