Sabric and Jessica disagree over an inequality statement. Sabric claims that –3.613 > –3.63. Jessica claims that –3.613 < –3.63. Which statement about each student’s claim is true?

Question

Jessica is correct because –3.613 lies to the left of –3.63 on a number line.
Jessica is correct because –3.63 lies to the right of –3.613 on a number line.
Sabric is correct because –3.613 lies to the left of –3.63 on a number line.
Sabric is correct because –3.613 lies to the right of –3.63 on a number line.

Answer 1

To compare the two numbers, let's visualize their positions on a number line.

• –3.613 is slightly greater than –3.63 because when looking at decimal numbers, the value with a higher absolute value (further from zero) in the negative direction is actually smaller. So, for negative numbers, the number closer to zero is larger.

Thus, we can see that: –3.613 is actually greater than –3.63, which means Sabric is correct.

Therefore, the correct statement is: Sabric is correct because –3.613 lies to the right of –3.63 on a number line.