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

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 always produce the same result:

$13 - 8 = 5$ and $13 + (-8) = 5$ : Both expressions evaluate to $5$ , confirming that $13 - 8 = 13 + (-8)$ .
$-17 - 9 = -26$ and $-17 + (-9) = -26$ : Both expressions evaluate to $-26$ , confirming that $-17 - 9 = -17 + (-9)$ . In each pair, replacing the subtraction with addition of the opposite yields an identical answer, demonstrating the property $a - b = a + (-b)$ with both positive and negative starting values.