Question

Write a situation in which positive and negative numbers are used to describe values that have opposite meaning. What does a 0 represent in this situation.

Answer 1

This could be a situation in which items are both bought and sold. In calculating the inventory, positive numbers represent items bought, negative numbers represent items sold and 0 would be no items in the inventory.

Another type of situation would be the displacement of an object from the original position. Where 0 would represent the original/starting position, positive values would represent distance moved forward, negative values represent distance moved backwards.