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:
“Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travelers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“For those parents from lower-class and minority communities ... [who] have had minimal experience in negotiating dominant, external institutions or have had negative and hostile contact with social service agencies, their initial approaches to the school are often overwhelming and difficult. Not only does the school feel like an alien environment with incomprehensible norms and structures, but the families often do not feel entitled to make demands or force disagreements.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)
“The forward Youth that would appear
Must now forsake his Muses dear,
Nor in the Shadows sing
His Numbers languishing.”
—Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)