+16 -3 - 4 = 7
I'm sure if that was what you are looking for, but here you are.
Your Question:
"can you take away plus four from minus three"
Solution:
If we are "taking away" something, then we are subtracting.
So -3 was the initial number that we want to pull from. As set up, it would be:
-3 - 4 = X
We know in Algebra, there is no such thing as subtraction. It is just a negative number. So in reality, we have:
-3 + - 4 = X
With negative numbers, we really can't "take away" from them. If you have -.03 cents in your pocket, but you spend another -.04, then you are even worse off, as you are now -.07 in debt. To put this in back into the math problem:
-3 + - 4 = -7.
Now, if we want to actually "take away" from -3, we have to remember the number line.
< ---- (-3) --- (-2) --- (-1) --- ( 0 ) --- (+1) --- (+2) --- (+3) ---->
However, in order to this, we need the math problem to change to:
-3 + 4 = X
If we start at the -3 on the number line above, count over 4 spaces (because we have the positive four next to it), then we wind up at positive 1.
-3 + 4 = 1.
