Everyday Uses of Negative Numbers
- Goal difference in association football and hockey; points difference in rugby football; net run rate in cricket; golf scores relative to par.
- British football clubs are deducted points if they enter administration, and thus have a negative points total until they have earned at least that many points that season.
- Lap (or sector) times in Formula 1 may be given as the difference compared to a previous lap (or sector) (such as the previous record, or the lap just completed by a driver in front), and will be positive if slower and negative if faster.
- In some athletics events, such as sprint races, the hurdles, the triple jump and the long jump, the wind assistance is measured and recorded, and is positive for a tailwind and negative for a headwind.
- Temperatures which are colder than 0°C or 0°F.
- Bank account balances which are overdrawn.
- Refunds to a credit card or debit card are a negative debit.
- A company might make a negative annual profit (ie. a loss).
- The annual percentage growth in a country's GDP might be negative, which is one indicator of being in a recession.
- Occasionally, a rate of inflation may be negative (deflation), indicating a fall in average prices.
- The daily change in a stock market index, such as the FTSE 100 or the Dow Jones.
- Topographical features of the earth's surface are given a height above sea level, which can be negative (eg. The surface elevation of The Dead Sea).
- The numbering of storeys in a building below the ground floor.
- When playing an audio file on a portable media player, such as an iPod, the screen display may show the time remaining as a negative number, which increases up to zero at the same rate as the time already played increases from zero.
- Participants on the quiz show QI often finish with a negative points score.
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Famous quotes containing the words everyday, negative and/or numbers:
“A really tight friendship is when you start to really care about the person. If he gets sick, you kind of start worrying about him—or if he gets hit by a car. An everyday friend, you say, I know that kid, he’s all right, and you don’t really think much of him. But a close friend you worry about more than yourself. Well, maybe not more, but about the same.”
—Anonymous Fifteen-Year-Old Boy. As quoted in Children’s Friendships by Zick Rubin, ch. 3 (1980)
“The negative cautions of science are never popular. If the experimentalist would not commit himself, the social philosopher, the preacher, and the pedagogue tried the harder to give a short- cut answer.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
“Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)