Billy stumps Sheldon with a question

[00:00:00]Billy is struggling with math and his mom was hoping that you could tutor.

[00:00:03]>> I could.

[00:00:04]>> Right.

[00:00:04]>> But I won't.

[00:00:05]>> Why not?

[00:00:05]>> Because me teaching Billy is like trying to use the gravitational power of a neutron star to change the spin of a boson.

[00:00:10]>> Don't do that. I told Brett that teaching wasn't really your thing.

[00:00:13]>> Well, it's not that I can't do it.

[00:00:14]>> Teaching just ain't one of them.

[00:00:15]>> I know what you're doing. It's reverse psychology.

[00:00:17]>> know what you're talking about.

[00:00:18]>> It's childish and obvious.

[00:00:19]>> I'll do it. I'm given to understand you have a test coming up on negative numbers and fractions.

[00:00:23]>> Yeah.

[00:00:24]>> So, what part don't you understand?

[00:00:26]Oh, boy. Where do you stand on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?

[00:00:29]>> I'm against it.

[00:00:31]>> Oh, boy. All right, let's talk about negative numbers. I'm all ears.

[00:00:34]>> Ear. This one's clogged.

[00:00:35]>> Negative numbers are numbers that are less than zero.

[00:00:38]>> But zero's nothing.

[00:00:39]>> Yes.

[00:00:39]>> So, how can you have less than nothing?

[00:00:41]>> Let's see. If you have a dollar, that's one. If you have no dollars, that's zero. But if you owe me a dollar, that's negative one. Does that make sense?

[00:00:48]>> I think so.

[00:00:48]>> All right, we're making progress.

[00:00:50]>> Mom, I owe Sheldon a dollar.

[00:00:52]>> And if you add negative one and positive one, you get?

[00:00:56]>> Zero?

[00:00:57]>> Correct.

[00:00:58]>> I think I understand.

[00:00:59]>> One question.

[00:01:00]>> How can you have zero if zero is nothing?

[00:01:02]>> Zero represents a state of nothingness.

[00:01:04]>> What does that mean?

[00:01:04]>> The absence of somethingness. Trust me, zero is a thing.

[00:01:07]>> But you just said it's a nothing.

[00:01:09]>> I did?

[00:01:10]>> A something or a nothing?