I deal with positive & negative numbers all shift when it comes to water elevations. I NEVER say: "minus"... Always: "negative." I guess I learned that in Math Class somewhere along the way.
It drives me wild like a math teacher when people say the lower pool, canal elevation is MINUS 2.56... NO! It's NEGATIVE 2.56. OR we could just all talk in positive numbers and say: 576.92 (feet above sea level).๐
Minus represents an operation, negative is a number.
I guess my math teacher is proud somewhere knowing I am calling numbers by their proper name, even adding & subtracting (minusing๐) them the correct way!