What is negative 10 minus negative 14?

Negative 10 minus negative 14 can be written as follows in mathematical terms:

(-10) - (-14)

That is a lot of negatives! With all the minus signs it may be confusing to figure out how to subtract a negative number from another negative number.

Don't dispair. We will explain how to solve negative 10 minus negative 14 so you understand the problem and can easily solve similar problems in the future.

Start by picturing a number line that goes to negative infinity on the left side of 0 and positive infinity on the right side of 0:

∞ ..... -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3, .... ∞

Looking at the number line above, we can make the following observations:

Adding a positive number goes to the right.
Adding a negative number goes to the left.

Adding and subtracting cannot go in the same direction on a number line. Therefore, this must also be true:

Subtracting a positive number goes to the left.
Subtracting a negative number goes to the right.

Thus, with the problem negative 10 minus negative 14, we are subtracting a negative number and we go to the right. Specifically, we go 14 "spaces" to the right from -10 to +4 on the number line.

Here is negative 10 minus negative 14 displayed with the answer per the explanation above:

(-10) - (-14) = 4

Negative Minus Negative Calculator
Get the answer to another negative number minus negative number problem here!

What is negative 10 minus negative 15?
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