# Acc6.7 Rational Numbers

In this unit, students interpret signed numbers in contexts (e.g., temperature, elevation, deposit and withdrawal, position, direction, speed and velocity, percent change) together with their sums, differences, products, and quotients. (“Signed numbers” include all rational numbers, written as decimals or in the form $$\frac a b.$$) They understand and use the terms “positive number,” “negative number,” “rational number,” “opposite,” “sign,” “absolute value,” “less than,” “greater than,” and the corresponding symbols. They plot points with signed rational number coordinates on the number line, and recognize and use the connection between relative position of two points on the number line and inequalities involving the coordinates of the points. They understand and use absolute value notation, understanding that the absolute value of a number as its distance from zero on the number line.

Students use tables and number line diagrams to represent sums and differences of signed numbers or changes in quantities represented by signed numbers such as temperature or elevation, becoming more fluent in writing different numerical addition and subtraction equations that express the same relationship. They compute sums and differences of signed numbers. Students plot pairs of signed number coordinates in the plane, understanding the relationship between the signs of a pair of coordinates and the quadrant of the corresponding point, and use coordinates to calculate horizontal and vertical distances between two points. They view situations in which objects are traveling at constant speed (familiar from previous units) as proportional relationships. For these situations, students use multiplication equations to represent changes in position on number line diagrams or distance traveled, and interpret positive and negative velocities in context. They become more fluent in writing different numerical multiplication and division equations for the same relationship.