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Intro to absolute value

Learn how to think about absolute value as distance from zero, and practice finding absolute values.
The absolute value of a number is its distance from 0.
For example, the absolute value of 4 is 4:
A number line from negative 5 to 5 with evenly spaced tick marks in increments of 1. Above the number line is a bracket labeled 4 that starts at 0 and ends at 4.
This seems kind of obvious. Of course the distance from 0 to 4 is 4. Where absolute value gets interesting is with negative numbers.
For example, the absolute value of 4 is also 4:
A number line from negative 5 to 5 with evenly spaced tick marks in increments of 1. Above the number line is a bracket labeled 4 that starts at negative 4 and ends at 0.

Let's practice!

Problem 1A
What is the absolute value of 3?
  • Your answer should be
  • an integer, like 6
  • a simplified proper fraction, like 3/5
  • a simplified improper fraction, like 7/4
  • a mixed number, like 1 3/4
  • an exact decimal, like 0.75
  • a multiple of pi, like 12 pi or 2/3 pi

The absolute value symbol

The symbol for absolute value is a bar | on each side of the number.
For example, instead of writing
"the absolute value of 6"
we can just write
|6|.

Let's practice!

Problem 2A
What is |7|?
  • Your answer should be
  • an integer, like 6
  • a simplified proper fraction, like 3/5
  • a simplified improper fraction, like 7/4
  • a mixed number, like 1 3/4
  • an exact decimal, like 0.75
  • a multiple of pi, like 12 pi or 2/3 pi

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