3.3 Introduction and Key Insights

Of course, we get new numbers when we multiply and divide old ones. The negative or positive sign of the result depends on the positive and negative signs of the numbers we started with. When you multiply or divide two positive numbers, the result is always positive. When you multiply or divide two negative numbers, the result is always positive. However, when you multiply or divide numbers with different signs (one positive and one negative), the result is always negative.

This chart summarizes these facts:

For example: $12\times(-3)=-36$, $(-5)\times(-4)=20$, $12\div (-4)=-3$, and $-32\div (-4)=8$.