1Cademy - Simplifying $$ 13 - 8 $$ and $$ -17 - 9 $$ Using the Subtraction Property

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Subtraction Property of Integers

Example

Simplifying $13 - 8$ and $-17 - 9$ Using the Subtraction Property

Apply the subtraction property to verify that subtracting a number and adding its opposite produce the same result:

$13 - 8 = 5$ and $13 + (-8) = 5$ , confirming that $13 - 8 = 13 + (-8)$ .
$-17 - 9 = -26$ and $-17 + (-9) = -26$ , confirming that $-17 - 9 = -17 + (-9)$ .

Replacing the subtraction with the addition of the opposite yields the same answer, demonstrating the property $a - b = a + (-b)$ for both positive and negative starting values.