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Jimmy84
Sep19-10, 10:59 PM
1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data
prove that if a is less than zero , and if b is less than zero then ab is greater than zero.

I have been having troubles with this problem.
thanks.


2. Relevant equations



3. The attempt at a solution

Office_Shredder
Sep19-10, 11:15 PM
What have you tried so far? Do you know what axioms for positivity you can use?

Jimmy84
Sep19-10, 11:33 PM
What have you tried so far? Do you know what axioms for positivity you can use?

Im reading the subject in the book of Spivak and frankly I dont understand what he says.
on page 12 he defined P to be a positive number thenhe said that for a number a only one of this three equalities is correct

a=0, a is a is part of P, and - a is part of P. I dont understand the last one since he defined P as the set of all the positive numbers maybe there might be a mistake in my book though.

is there any other way to prove this theorem?

Office_Shredder
Sep19-10, 11:44 PM
For example, if a=-3, then -a is in P, not a.

You're going to have to use his definition of positivity to do the problem. You can't prove that something has a certain property without using its defining features!

As a starting point: We know that a<0 and b<0 here, so (-a)>0 and (-b)>0. Try to work from here