One thing that I learned this week in Pre Calc 11 is how to solve absolute values. The definition of an absolute value is the principal square root of the square of a number. This definition explains that the number to the power of two, square rooted is equal to the absolute value. Ex. . The absolute value will always be a positive number also known as the “principal square root”.

You can tell a number is an absolute value when it has absolute value bars around it: . These bars do not mean the same thing as parentheses or brackets. However, if there are absolute value bars with an equation inside, you must solve whats in-between the bars before being able to find the absolute value.

I have included an example below that shows the steps I would take to find the absolute value of an equation, where you must solve what is in-between the bars before finding the final answer.