Absolute Value of a real number is defined as the principal square root of the square of a number.

For example,

-2 and 2 located 2 units from 0.

So, each number has an absolute value of 2.

|-2| =2

|2| =2

Absolute Value can be used to determine distance between two points

For example,

3-(-4) = 7, -4-3=-7

Since the distance cannot be negative, we rewrite the distance as an absolute value

|3-(-4)|=7, |-4-3|=7

The distance between two numbers on a number line is the absolute value of their difference.

We know that |a-b|=|b-a|