Applicable Integers

What are integers? Why are they even important? Words like integer can often times be confusing and frustrating. I have found, especially with this last semester in math class, that it is important to carry a dictionary on hand or be able to research words to learn their definition. Often times when we learn the definition of a word, we realize we already knew what it meant- we just didn't know the "official" name.

Granted, Integer is a basic term- but many people don't know it or don't remember it anymore. So, to make sure we are all on the same page I am going to use Merriam-Webster's definition:

Definition of INTEGER

1: any of the natural numbers, the negatives of these numbers, or zero

2: a complete entity 

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integer)

So, as we can see here... an integer is basically a whole number or zero (ex. 0,1,2,3, etc). But this also means that integers can be negative as well... -3,-2,-1. If we put these numbers all together we could represent them using a number line.

By using number lines we can quickly visualize the total number of items we have. Say we have 3 dollars. We want to put exactly $3.00 of gas into our car. We put the pump into the car and pull the trigger and two or three seconds later the pump suddenly shows we owe $6.00- we went from one full end of the scale to the other. This is revealed in the following number line.

When you study this number line you can see that a positive $3.00 is shown on one side of the number line and a negative on the opposite. If we were to count all the numbers on this scale we would come up with our absolute value of 6, or in this specific case $6.00 of total gas cost.  We can also see that we had $3.00, but now we are negative $3.00- in other words, we better start digging for change or use a card! 

So, although the words we learned today were very mathematical (integer, absolute value, number line, etc.) there's a good chance most of us knew the basic concept behind these terms. Also we likely  use these concepts repeatedly throughout each day whether consciously or unconsciously, pretty amazing! I will end this post with a cartoon I made for my other math class, I hope you enjoy it!