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Introduction

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Chapter 2: Integers

2.1 Introduction

To preserve food, people invented the fridge, which stays cold inside and keeps food fresh for longer. Similar but separate from the fridge is the freezer, which is kept at a temperature below 0 \(^{\circ}C\) and keeps fish, meat and ice cream frozen until we want to use them.
To preserve food, people invented the fridge, which stays cold inside and keeps food fresh for longer. Similar but separate from the fridge is the freezer, which is kept at a temperature below 0 \(^{\circ}C\) and keeps fish, meat and ice cream frozen until we want to use them.

In this chapter, you will work with whole numbers smaller than \(0\). These numbers are called negative numbers. The whole numbers larger than \(0\), \(0\) itself, and the negative whole numbers together are called integers.

Negative numbers have certain properties that make them useful for various purposes. You will learn about these properties and how they make it possible to do calculations using negative numbers.