A DramaticIdentity. There's normally just one on any page.

It's so much easier to shoot them down that way.

See DialecticMode, DevilsAdvocate

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NegativeOne is the greatest of the negative integers. ''Sounds like an ego trip.''

If using TwosComplement arithmetic, NegativeOne has the same bit-pattern as the maximum representable unsigned machine integer.

ANSI C doesn't express it in such terms, but its rules for casting between signed and unsigned ints effectively say that "it's a no-op if you're using TwosComplement".

And is generally represented in a computer as a string of all-set bits, or in hexadecimal as all 'F's.

As opposed to NegativeZero, which has no representation in 2's-complement, but does in other schemes.

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Well, to be exhaustive, wouldn't you need to say something about its SquareRoot? I mean, where would complexity and ChaosTheory be without imaginary numbers?
	 :	''i = sqrt(-1)''
Of course, engineer call it ''j'' ...

See ComplexNumbers and ComplexNumbersAreYourFriends.

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The value -1 is often used in software as a special value to indicate "error", or "not applicable", or "missing value" (see ZeroMeansNull). Many people consider this to be a bad idea, a remnant of low-level programming languages and simplistic storage techniques.

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The value -1 is also equal to the value TRUE in many (scripting) languages. This makes sense, if you consider that its binary equivalent has all bits set to 1 (e.g. 11111111 for a 8-bit value). So binary spoken, false equals 00000000, and true equals 11111111. (ANS ForthLanguage is an example.)

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A few years ago, a questionnaire was making its way through e-mail boxes. I sent it to an old friend from college. Here is part of his response:

 WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE...
 31. Salad Dressing: Roquefort.
 32. Color of socks: Black
 33. Number: eip (''i.e.'', http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/7/0/0/7008856d231c4fa730fbcdd93a68f0a9.png)
 34. Why?: People tell me I'm a negative one.
So, of course, I shot him. -- ElizabethWiethoff

''That is pronounced "''e'' to the power of ''i'' times ''pi''". For explanation, see this article about Euler's Identity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_identity''.

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CategoryDramaticIdentity