Backwards Backwards

         5
-    - 3

What is this?  

1) 5 take away minus 3?

2) 5 minus minus 3?
3) 5 plus 3?

In effect, this is 5 plus 3. Why? Firstly, despite what your mother told you, two wrongs do make a right. Well, in math they do. In this case, the 2 negatives (wrongs) become a right (positive).

Think of the motion of the woman in the photograph. She is moving to the right and we generally think of a right movement in math as positive. A left motion in mathematics is considered negative. Left, in history, was considered evil or sinister.

If we ask the woman to turn around and walk backwards, or asked her to walk "backwards backwards", she'd still be moving to the right. (Just facing the other way but we don't worry about this - just the direction of travel.) 

Your two "minus" signs are your backwards backwards. They become a positive. Try walking backwards backwards for yourself.