>>15462284

Tl;Dr: "I had one apple. I then took one apple away from my friend. Now I have two."

The problem is that there are two different kinds of operators here. There are single object operators and double object operators.

The symbols '+' and '-' can play two roles. When put in front of a single number, they represent an orientation.

(+2) = Positive 2
(-3) = Negative 3

You might ask, "What does that even mean?" One way of looking at it would be that positive apples represents the number of apples you have, and negative apples represents the number of apples your friend has.

So,
+3 = I have three apples.
-2 = My friend has two apples.

But, because '+' and '-' are playing double roles, what happens when they are two object operators?

For example:
(+1) + (+2) = +3

What does this mean? Well, let the operators mean the following phrases:
'+' = "was given"
'-' = "was taken away"

So, when you get a phrase like:
(+3) - (+2)= +1

You can say, "I had three apples. Then, two apples were taken away from me. Now, I only have one."

But, numerically, this is equivalent to saying:
(+3) + (-2) = +1

Which is the sentence, "I had three apples. My friend was given two of those apples. I now only have one."

So, for the sentence:
(+1) - (-1) = +2, you can change this to

"I had one apple. I then took one apple away from my friend. Now I have two."

Without understanding the difference between single object operators and double object operators, things can get confusing.

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Someone explain how this makes sense