Question

Fill in the blanks!

Explore subtraction with a positive number and a negative number:
5 - (-2)
- Bring out a group of 5 positive integer tiles.
- Bring out zero pairs until there are 2 negative tiles.
- Take 2 negative tiles away.
5 - (-2) = _

Answer 1

To solve the expression \( 5 - (-2) \), we can break it down step by step using the positive and negative integer tiles as described.

1. **Start with 5 positive tiles**: Represent this with 5 tiles (let's call them \( +1 \) tiles).
2. **Bring out zero pairs**: For every negative tile brought out, we add a positive tile to create a zero pair. Since we need to bring out 2 negative tiles, we also need to add 2 positive tiles to make them into zero pairs. So now we have:
- 5 positive tiles (from the initial group)
- +2 positive tiles (to pair with the 2 negative tiles)

This gives a total of \( 5 + 2 = 7 \) positive tiles.

3. **Remove 2 negative tiles**: Now, when we take away the 2 negative tiles from our setup, we are effectively still left with those 7 positive tiles.

Thus, we find that:
\[
5 - (-2) = 7
\]

So, the final answer is:
\[
5 - (-2) = 7
\]