Talk about confusing me!  Try this one on your system:
	echo 15 | awk '{t1=-15;t2=15;t3=-t2;t4=-$1;print t1,t3,t4}'
On my system (Unisoft V.0) it produces:
	-2.71875 -2.71875 -2.71875
The expression "t1=0-15" works correctly.
-- 
	Geoff Kuenning
	{hplabs,ihnp4}!trwrb!desint!geoff