I thought of something. -9 isn't really shorter than -5, and they're both longer than 0. On a number line, the distance between -5 and 0 is the same as between 0 and 5: they're both 5. But of course I realized this when I made my original post...

> The rest of what I was trying to say in the previous post was rather silly and probably doesn't bear repeating.

Good call. I say we drop this right now and never mention it again.

Stephen