Answer:
To find the distance between two numbers:
Draw a number line and mark the numbers on it, then find the distance between them.
OR
If both numbers are positive, subtract the smaller number from the larger.
If both numbers are negative, subtract the larger number from the smaller and then take the absolute value of the result.
If one number is positive and one is negative, add their absolute values.
Explanation:
Suppose we want to find the distance between the numbers -3 and 5. We can draw a number line and mark -3 and 5 on it. The distance between them is 8.
If we want to find the distance between 7 and 3, we can subtract the smaller number (3) from the larger (7) to get 4.
To find the distance between -2 and -7, we subtract the larger number (-2) from the smaller (-7), which gives us -7 - (-2) = -5. Since we want the distance, we take the absolute value of -5, which is 5.
If we want to find the distance between 4 and -3, we add the absolute values of 4 and -3, which gives us 4 + 3 = 7.