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what is the definition of absolute value in math terms

by Dr. Ellis Yost Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago

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If a given number is positive or zero, its absolute value is the number itself. If the number is negative, we omit the minus sign. The absolute value of the number 100 is 100, in mathematical notation |100| = 100. The absolute value of zero is zero, |0| = 0, the absolute value of −6.3 is 6.3, | − 6.3| = 6.3.

Full Answer

How do you calculate absolute value?

How do you calculate absolute value? To calculate the absolute value of a number, just enter the number and to apply the function abs. Thus, for calculating the absolute value of the number -5, you must enter abs(-5) or directly -5, if the button abs already appears, the result 5 is returned.

What does the word absolute value mean in math terms?

Absolute value refers to the distance of a number from zero, regardless of direction. The distance is always positive, as absolute value of a number cannot be negative. Use this term to refer to the distance of a point or number from the origin (zero) of a number line.

What is the formula for absolute value?

  • In the above screenshot, the first row contains a positive number, so there is no difference, and the ABS function returned the absolute value of the number.
  • Drag down the formula for all the cell
  • We will get the below output as follows.

Why is absolute value important in math?

the absolute value an is the “length” of that number. This means that we can measure distances between two numbers, this means that the distance between is defined as This is extremely important for problems in real analysis. A lot of the times you want to know if the distance between to quantities can get arbitrarily small.

What is the definition of absolute value in math?

Absolute value describes the distance from zero that a number is on the number line, without considering direction. The absolute value of a number is never negative. Take a look at some examples. The absolute value of 5 is 5. The distance from 5 to 0 is 5 units.

What is the best definition of absolute value?

Definitions: The absolute value (or modulus) | x | of a real number x is the non-negative value of x without regard to its sign. For example, the absolute value of 5 is 5, and the absolute value of −5 is also 5. The absolute value of a number may be thought of as its distance from zero along real number line.

What is the definition of absolute value for kids?

absolute value. • the absolute value of a number (x or -x) is just. the value of the numeral, ignoring the sign. • the distance the number is from zero on the number line.

What is the other way to define absolute value?

noun Mathematics. Also called numerical value. the magnitude of a quantity, irrespective of sign; the distance of a quantity from zero. The absolute value of a number is symbolized by two vertical lines, as |3| or |−3| is equal to 3.

What is the meaning of absolute value essay?

absolute value The magnitude of a number, regardless of its sign (positive or negative). For example, 25 is the absolute value of 25 and –25. Most spreadsheet programs include a function that returns the absolute value of a number.

How do we write the absolute value of?

5:437:04Writing Absolute Value Equations Given Solutions - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipNow if we back up just a second here and remember that the absolute value by definition is aMoreNow if we back up just a second here and remember that the absolute value by definition is a number's distance from zero well if we just think of it this way x minus zero equals the distance. Well

What is the absolute value of 12?

It's easy to understand that the absolute value of 12 and -12 are identical: they're both 12, since each number is 12 units away from zero. Absolute value is always positive — to get the absolute value of a negative number, just take away the minus sign.

What is the absolute value of 9?

9The absolute value of 9 is 9. (9 is 9 places from 0.)

What is the absolute value of 8?

8The absolute value of 8 is 8.

How do you know if an answer is an absolute value?

An absolute value expression can never be less than zero. That is a fully reduced absolute value expression must be greater than or equal to zero. If on simplifying an absolute value expression, the value on the other side of the equation has a negative sign i.e. it is a negative number then it has no solutions.

Why do we use absolute value?

When you see an absolute value in a problem or equation, it means that whatever is inside the absolute value is always positive. Absolute values are often used in problems involving distance and are sometimes used with inequalities.

What is an absolute value of a number?

The absolute value of a number represents the distance of the number from zero in a number line.

What is the absolute value of 4?

The absolute value of 4 is 4. |4| = 4

What is the absolute value of -12?

The absolute value of -12 is 12. Since the distance between -12 and 0 in a number line is 12.

What is the symbol for absolute value?

The symbol to represent absolute value is |x|, where x is an integer.

What is the absolute value of -7?

The absolute value of -7 is 7. It is represented by |-7| = 7.

Is absolute value negative?

Absolute value of any integer is always positive and never negative.

What is the absolute value of a number?

As noted above, the absolute value of a real or complex number is the distance from that number to the origin, along the real number line , for real numbers, or in the complex plane, for complex numbers, and more generally, the absolute value of the difference of two real or complex numbers is the distance between them.

What is the derivative of the real absolute value function?

The real absolute value function has a derivative for every x ≠ 0 , but is not differentiable at x = 0. Its derivative for x ≠ 0 is given by the step function:

What is the relationship between absolute value and signum?

The absolute value function of a real number returns its value irrespective of its sign, whereas the sign (or signum) function returns a number's sign irrespective of its value. The following equations show the relationship between these two functions:

Can a complex number have the same absolute value?

have the same absolute value. Since the complex numbers are not ordered, the definition given at the top for the real absolute value cannot be directly applied to complex numbers. However, the geometric interpretation of the absolute value of a real number as its distance from 0 can be generalised.

Is absolute value constant?

The real absolute value function is continuous everywhere. It is differentiable everywhere except for x = 0. It is monotonically decreasing on the interval (−∞, 0] and monotonically increasing on the interval [0, +∞). Since a real number and its opposite have the same absolute value, it is an even function, and is hence not invertible. The real absolute value function is a piecewise linear, convex function .

No Negatives!

So in practice "absolute value" means to remove any negative sign in front of a number, and to think of all numbers as positive (or zero).

Absolute Value Symbol

To show that we want the absolute value of something, we put "|" marks either side (they are called "bars" and are found on the right side of a keyboard), like these examples:

Subtract Either Way Around

And it doesn't matter which way around we do a subtraction, the absolute value will always be the same:

What is absolute value?

absolute value. n. 1. The numerical value of a real number without regard to its sign. For example, the absolute value of -4 (written │-4│) is 4. Also called numerical value. 2. The modulus of a complex number, equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the real and imaginary components of the number.

What is the definition of the word "modulus"?

the magnitude of a quantity, irrespective of sign; the distance of a quantity from zero. The absolute value of a number is symbolized by two vertical lines, as |3| or |−3| is three. 2. the square root of the sum of the squares of the real and imaginary parts of a given complex number . Also called modulus.

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Overview

In mathematics, the absolute value or modulus of a real number , denoted , is the non-negative value of without regard to its sign. Namely, if x is a positive number, and if is negative (in which case negating makes positive), and . For example, the absolute value of 3 is 3, and the absolute value of −3 is also 3. The absolute value of a number may be thought of as its distance from zero.

Terminology and notation

In 1806, Jean-Robert Argand introduced the term module, meaning unit of measure in French, specifically for the complex absolute value, and it was borrowed into English in 1866 as the Latin equivalent modulus. The term absolute value has been used in this sense from at least 1806 in French and 1857 in English. The notation |x|, with a vertical bar on each side, was introduced by Karl Weierstrass in 1841. Other names for absolute value include numerical value and magnitude. In …

Definition and properties

For any real number , the absolute value or modulus of is denoted by , with a vertical bar on each side of the quantity, and is defined as
The absolute value of is thus always either a positive number or zero, but never negative. When itself is negative (), then its absolute value is necessarily positive ().

Absolute value function

The real absolute value function is continuous everywhere. It is differentiable everywhere except for x = 0. It is monotonically decreasing on the interval (−∞, 0] and monotonically increasing on the interval [0, +∞). Since a real number and its opposite have the same absolute value, it is an even function, and is hence not invertible. The real absolute value function is a piecewise linear, convex function.

Distance

The absolute value is closely related to the idea of distance. As noted above, the absolute value of a real or complex number is the distance from that number to the origin, along the real number line, for real numbers, or in the complex plane, for complex numbers, and more generally, the absolute value of the difference of two real or complex numbers is the distance between them.
The standard Euclidean distance between two points

Generalizations

The definition of absolute value given for real numbers above can be extended to any ordered ring. That is, if a is an element of an ordered ring R, then the absolute value of a, denoted by |a|, is defined to be:
where −a is the additive inverse of a, 0 is the additive identity, and < and ≥ have the usual meaning with respect to the ordering in the ring.

Notes

1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, Draft Revision, June 2008
2. ^ Nahin, O'Connor and Robertson, and functions.Wolfram.com.; for the French sense, see Littré, 1877
3. ^ Lazare Nicolas M. Carnot, Mémoire sur la relation qui existe entre les distances respectives de cinq point quelconques pris dans l'espace, p. 105 at Google Books

External links

• "Absolute value". Encyclopedia of Mathematics. EMS Press. 2001 [1994].
• absolute value at PlanetMath.
• Weisstein, Eric W. "Absolute Value". MathWorld.

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