A gentle puzzle I was just asked.

Lost User

OriginalGriff wrote:

What is the smallest positive integer minus the largest negative integer?

Yeah, I resorted to asking a child. The smallest positive integer is 1. I can cope with that. The largest negative integer is infinite. She said infinite negative +1. I am still looking for a way to refute that.

Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

jmaida

1 is smallest positive integer -infinity is largest negative integer 1 - (-infinity) is 1 + infinity is infinity oops my coffee cup is overflowing

"A little time, a little trouble, your better day" Badfinger

Lost User

Largest negative. I had not noticed that. Reading correctly is half the battle. :thumbsup: Well done :suss:

Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

Lost User

I fell for the same. -1 is larger than -10. The largest negative integer is -1. Infinity isn't in this game. Made me feel stupid and I loved it :thumbsup:

Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

jmaida

All depends on one's definition of largest negative integer. The largest integer that is negative or the largest negative integer compared to all negative integers. The problem as stated is missing this clarity.

"A little time, a little trouble, your better day" Badfinger

OriginalGriff

Mathematically, zero is neither positive or negative ... :-D

"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

Davyd McColl

For sure: if I have -$2, I owe the bank more than if I had -$1. $2 is a larger number, indicating a larger debt.

------------------------------------------------ If you say that getting the money is the most important thing You will spend your life completely wasting your time You will be doing things you don't like doing In order to go on living That is, to go on doing things you don't like doing Which is stupid. - Alan Watts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXTZM\_uPMY

Jorgen Andersson

Silly me was thinking in Int32.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

haughtonomous

I think it's a bad mistake to assume that a computer implementation of a mathematical concept provides a correct definition, especially at the limits. But I agree that mathematically -1 is larger than -2. It's the distance from the extreme left of the number line (-infinity) that illustrates this. And zero is neutral, neither positive nor negative. And we're relying on ChatGPT for truth now? Lord help us!

BernardIE5317

This should clear things up. Integer - Wikipedia[^]

jarvisa

The smallest positive integer is either 0 or 1 depending on whether 0 is considered positive or not. The largest negative integer is -1. So the answer is 1 or 2. This is not the intent of question but that is the correct answer given how the question was worded.

obeobe

Post-modernism.

MikeCO10

Halfway through my first cup of coffee, this sent me into overthink mode, coming up with everything from infinity to zero. It took some reading of comments to see the correct answer is indeed 2. Great question Griff.

Member 10652083

You have to define 'largest'.

OriginalGriff

I don't - we have dictionaries to do that: :-D

Quote:

largest Definitions from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English. (adjective) Greatest in size of those under consideration. (adjective) maximal. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. (adjective) Superlative form of large: most large.

"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

jochance

∞ + 1 Because: 1 - (-∞)

mdblack98

Since this is a coding site here are the possibilities for a 32-bit int.

#include #include int main()
{
int pos = 1;
int neg = INT_MIN;
printf("pos=%d neg=%d\n", pos,neg);
printf("pos+neg=%d\n", pos+neg);
printf("pos-neg=%d\n", pos-neg);
printf("neg+pos=%d\n", neg+pos); // yes I know it's commutative but here for completeness
printf("neg-pos=%d\n", neg-pos);
return 0;
}

pos=1 neg=-2147483648
pos+neg=-2147483647
pos-neg=-2147483647 // Hmmm...this seems wrong -- subtracting negative SHOULD add it.
neg+pos=-2147483647
neg-pos=2147483647

Matt Bond

Depends on context. See Is zero positive or negative?

Bond Keep all things as simple as possible, but no simpler. -said someone, somewhere

stheller2

J Tackkett

This person is absolutely correct. In the field of mathematics, the largest negative integer is -1. Therefore 1 - (-1) would indeed be 2.