Properties of Subtraction
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Subtraction is also important to know. Here is some useful vocabulary below:
The minuend is the number that something is being taken away from (it’s the number on top or that comes first).
The subtrahend is the amount that being subtracted (it’s the number on the bottom or the comes second).
The difference is the answer is a subtraction problem. This is important because subtraction is really telling you the difference between two numbers, especially if you look at them on a number line.
Minuend - Subtrahend = Difference
This is helpful because many problems will ask you to find the difference and, when that happens, you will know that subtraction is needed.
Identity Property
The Identity Property of Subtraction
This property say that any number, from which 0 is taken away, is still that number.
Ex. 1: 1,000,000 - 0 = 1,000,000
Equality Property
Equality Property
This says that subtracting a number from itself always equal zero.
Ex. 1: 4,435 - 4,435 = 0
Summary
The minuend - the subtrahend = the difference (in a subtraction problem).
Difference is often a word you will hear when solving problems in math (remember that it refers to subtraction).
Any number subtracted from itself, equals 0 and any number where 0 is subtracted from it is equal to itself.