Relatives of mine living in the city always have an irratinonal sense of superiority.

Hello native English speakers. Query about another real three simple sentences. 1a. They have told us that they are not coming. 1b. They have told that they are not coming. Which is grammatically correct? From the 1a., can we regard the "us" as a indirect object, and the "that they are coming" as direct object? By the way if there is clear context , does the 1b. also grammatically correct? 2a. John is the tallest of them all, but is notwithstanding quite small. 2b. John is the tallest (man ) among all of them, but is notwithstanding quite small (my grammatically guess). Query : Is the 2b. (my guess) correct by grammar and logic? 3a. Your vegetable plot is three times larger than ours.(original) 3b. Your vegetable plot is three times as large as ours. 3c. Your vegetable plot is four times as large as ours. Query: Which is/are grammatically correct? Does the 3a. have fixed meaning or not? Which can express the meaning of the original(the 3a.)?

When you multiply a negative number twice, why you get a positive number? I'll explain it to you in an easy way. -1+1=0. It means that if you multiply any number x by A number that is the product of -1 and x, you get 0. To generalize, if any number is x, x+(-1)*x=0. Now define x as -1. (x = -1) x=-1, and the equation is x+(-1)*x=0. To add a number to -1 and get 0, you need to add 1. x+(-1)*x=0 can be expressed as -1+(-1)*(-1)=0. If you add any number to -1 to get 0, that number is 1. Since x=-1 before, this equation becomes (-1)*(-1)=(-1)*x=1. -> (-1)*(-1)=1 So you learn that if you multiply a negative by a negative, you get a positive.