Negative numbers - practical examples

You use negative numbers in lots of different situations.

Temperature
You read about negative numbers in weather reports and on food packaging. The temperature -5°C is 'negative five degrees' and it means 5 degrees below zero.
Read more about negative numbers on food packaging in factsheet 7.

Buildings
Have you ever been in the lift of a building that goes underground?
Watch the floors as you go down. Starting on the third floor you would see:
      3,  2,  1,  0,  -1,  -2
In the building -2 is the second floor underground.

Bank statements
Many of us will recognise negative numbers on a bank statement. If you spend more money than you have in the account it will show up as a negative number. Sometimes these numbers are written in red, with a negative sign in front of them or you will see the letters DR. These all mean that the account is overdrawn - oh no!
Here's a section from Anna's statement. It shows she is £135 overdrawn. This is the same as saying -£135, she has negative one hundred and thirty five pounds in the bank.

Take a look around to see if you can find other examples where negative numbers are used to show less than zero.