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:
““... You could sit there with the stains on your shoes
Of the fresh earth from your own baby’s grave
And talk about your everyday concerns.
You had stood the spade up against the wall
Outside there in the entry, for I saw it.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Mothers often are too easily intimidated by their children’s negative reactions...When the child cries or is unhappy, the mother reads this as meaning that she is a failure. This is why it is so important for a mother to know...that the process of growing up involves by definition things that her child is not going to like. Her job is not to create a bed of roses, but to help him learn how to pick his way through the thorns.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“He bundles every forkful in its place,
And tags and numbers it for future reference,
So he can find and easily dislodge it
In the unloading. Silas does that well.
He takes it out in bunches like birds’ nests.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)