Question

The greatest negative integer is
$
  (a){\text{ - 100}} \\
  (b){\text{ does not exist}} \\
  (c){\text{ - 1}} \\
  (d){\text{ - 9}} \\
 $

Answer 1

Hint – The numbers to the right side of 0 keep on being more positive as we go farther to right from origin, however if we move towards the left from origin, the greater we move left the lesser negative number becomes.

Complete step-by-step answer:

As we know that the negative integer is an integer to the left of the zero on the number line.
So, the negative integer is always less than zero.

There are some negative integers which are shown below in increasing order
$ - \infty < ..................... < - 10 < - 9 < ......... < - 3 < - 2 < - 1$

So from the above negative integers the greatest negative integer is (– 1).

So this is the required answer.

Hence option (C) is correct.

Note – It is clear that -1 is more negative than -100 due to its placing closer to origin. The negativity is not compared in magnitude as if we take magnitude of -1 it will be 1 and the magnitude of -100 is 100, so we can create the misconception that 100 being greater than 1 means -100 is more negative than -1. It’s absolutely wrong.