thi rilateonshep bitwiin iach numbir and ziro.
Dang. That I and E confusion thing is catching!
Actually, my original response was going to be "zero, plus or minus 'R'", so I wasn't thinking about it from the "difference" perspective of subtracting -R from +R. The true difference, of course, is 2R (or -2R, depending on which 'R' is first). I was thinking of the equidistance of the two R's from zeros.
That's why I always sucked at math. I always tried to find relationships between the numbers that were much more interesting than the ones the teachers were trying to teach me. In comparing positive and negative numbers, I have a tendency to see the word "difference" as meaning the "net difference of the two numbers as they relate to zero". Stupid on my part, of course, not following the accepted norm. Then again, I've always thought that "distance" would be a better keyword to imply subtraction instead of "difference". "Difference" implies how the two numbers differ. "Distance" implies how far apart the two numbers are.
Sooo... the real question is how did I end up ranting on math? |
