Question

Explain how you would use a number line to find the absolute value of –12.

Answer 1

The absolute value is 12. I don't know how you would use the number line to your advantage but that's because that's not how they taught me in school.

Answer 2

This is kind of hard to explain, but I'm going to try. Feel free to comment questions if what I'm going to say doesn't make sense.

Absolute Value
∞ # of spaces away from zero
∞ how far away a number is from zero

1). Draw a number line.
2). Label it from -12 to 0.
3). Count on the number line from -12 to 0 and see how many units to the right you have to go to reach zero. The answer is 12, so that is the absolute value.
|-12| = 12