Video: Finding and Positioning Rational Numbers on a Horizontal or Vertical Number Line Diagram

Video Transcript

What number is 𝑚? Give your answer as a mixed number.

The first thing we do here is find out where zero is on our number line. We see that 𝑚 is to the left of zero and that means that it’s going to be negative. All the numbers to the left of zero on a number line are negative. 𝑚 is very near negative two. It falls between negative one and negative two.

Let’s zoom in a little bit on the space between negative one and negative two. The 𝑚 is here. How many spaces are between negative one and negative two? One, two, three, four. And the 𝑚 fills three of those four spaces. We call the space where 𝑚 is negative one and three-fourths — negative because we’re moving to the left of zero, we’ve moved negative one, one whole unit to the left of zero — and then three-fourths of a unit further. So we’ve gone negative one and three-fourths

𝑚 is located at negative one and three-fourths.