[b]Definition:[/b] Let [math]x[/math] be any real number. Then we define the [b]absolute value[/b] of [math]x[/math] as:[br][center][math]\vert x \vert = \left\{ \begin{matrix}x & if & x \geq 0 \\ -x & if & x < 0\end{matrix}\right.[/math][/center][br][b]Comments:[/b] Absolute value can be regarded as the distance from number [math]x[/math] to [math]0[/math].

The following clip (created by Sal Khan and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education) illustrates how to to find the absolute value of 5, -10, and 12. [br]

[url=https://mathworld.wolfram.com/about/author.html]Khan Academy. (n.d.). [i]Absolute value examples (video)[/i]. Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/cc-6th-negative-number-topic/cc-6th-absolute-value/v/absolute-value-of-integers. [br][br][br]Weisstein, Eric W.[/url] "Absolute Value." From [url=https://mathworld.wolfram.com/][i]MathWorld[/i][/url]--A Wolfram Web Resource. [url=https://mathworld.wolfram.com/AbsoluteValue.html]https://mathworld.wolfram.com/AbsoluteValue.html[/url]

Use the following applet to find the absolute value of a few numbers.