The starting temperature was -5 degrees at 5am, and after two hours, the temperature was 34 degrees at 7am. The temperature increased by 39 degrees, how did we get this answer?
You add -5 and 39
-5 + 39 = 34
A tip for adding negatives:
When you get a problem similar to -5 + 39, you can actually flip them around if you need an easier understanding. So it would be 39 - 5. Both equations still equal 34 as long as you keep the values of each number!