Question

What is absolute value? can you solve problems using the absolute value?

Answer 1

An absolute value is positive value of any value. So the abs value of -28 is 28. The abs value of 67 is 67. Makes sense?

If it were |27-3| for example, treat the inside of a abs as parenthesis, so you must complete PEMDAS inside of it to reduce the equation to |24|, unless you wanted it to become |27| - |3|.

For functions, this becomes slightly different and more difficult, especially when adding a variable such as x. Look below for a sample equation.

|2x-3|=1

This equation will actually have (and most others) 2 solutions for x. To find these, you’ll need to multiply the inside of the abs by -1 for one equation, and leave it as it is for the other!

2x-3=1 -(2x-3)=1

Now you have to solve BOTH equations to get your correct x-value answers.

For the first listed equation:

2x=4

x=2

For the second listed equation:

-2x+3=1

-2x=-2

x=-1

So you get the x-values -1 and 2 which both make the parent function true!

Answer 2

Absolute value is a numbers distance from zero. It keeps positive numbers and turns negative numbers positive.

Yes, you can solve problems using the absolute value. For example,

|4| - |1| = 4-1 = 3