Question

The below table shows the lowest recorded temperature for each continent. Write the contents in order from the lowest recorded temperature to the highest recorded temperature.

The lowest recorded temperatures
Continent	Temperature (in F)
Africa	$-{{11}^{\circ }}$
Antarctica	$-{{129}^{\circ }}$
Asia	$-{{90}^{\circ }}$
Australia	$-{{9}^{\circ }}$
Europe	$-{{67}^{\circ }}$
North America	$-{{81}^{\circ }}$
South America	$-{{27}^{\circ }}$

Answer 1

Hint: In this question, we are given lowest recorded temperature for each continent. We have to arrange the continents in order from lowest recorded temperature to highest recorded temperature. For this, we will compare the given temperature and arrange them in ascending order and then write content in ascending order by comparing them with their temperatures. For arranging we will understand the way of arranging negative numbers as all the temperatures are negative.

Complete step-by-step answer:
We are given different temperatures as:
\[-{{11}^{\circ }},-{{129}^{\circ }},-{{90}^{\circ }},-{{9}^{\circ }},-{{67}^{\circ }},-{{81}^{\circ }},-{{27}^{\circ }}\]
We need to arrange them from lowest number to highest number. As we know, for negative numbers, higher the magnitude of numbers, smaller the number is with negative sign. So will first arrange the numbers in ascending order ignoring the signs. So, number after ignoring signs become:
\[11,129,90,9,67,81,27\]
Let us arrange them first.
As we can see 9 is the least number and 129 is the highest, so arranging them in ascending order we get:
9 < 11 < 27 < 67 < 81 < 90 < 129
Now, after putting signs, the value with highest magnitude becomes least, so putting signs to number, our order of number reverses and we get number as:
\[-\text{12}{{\text{9}}^{\circ }}\text{ }<\text{ }-\text{9}{{0}^{\circ }}\text{ }<\text{ }-\text{8}{{0}^{\circ }}\text{ }<\text{ }-\text{6}{{\text{7}}^{\circ }}\text{ }<\text{ }-\text{2}{{\text{7}}^{\circ }}\text{ }<\text{ }-\text{1}{{\text{1}}^{\circ }}\text{ }<\text{ }-{{\text{9}}^{\circ }}\]
Let us now, compare them with their contents and hence, we get order as,
Antarctica < Asia < North America < Europe < South America < Africa < Australia
In other words, the order of continents from lowest to highest temperature is Antarctica, Asia, North America, Europe, South America, Africa and Australia.

Note: Students should carefully check the temperature first as all are negative or not before applying this method. Students can directly write the least temperature by taking the temperature with the most magnitude and so on. Students should not get confused with negative or positive signs while comparing numbers.