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Introduction to Absolute Value 11924 Views


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Description:

Check out this video to learn more about absolute value and how it has no patience for negative signs.

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English Language

Transcript

00:01

Absolute Value a la Shmoop A healthy sense of optimism can have a strong

00:05

effect on one’s psyche. No, no – psyche.

00:09

For example, you might hear an optimistic person say, “I just got a terrible haircut…

00:15

but my new faux-hawk will make me stand out from the crowd!”

00:18

Or, “an earthquake just swallowed my home… but I get to be on the news!”

00:24

Or, “an asteroid the size of the sun is hurtling toward the Earth and we have only

00:28

a few minutes left to live… but at least we’re all going together!”

00:32

See how much nicer things seem when we put a positive spin on it?

00:35

Then you’re just going to love Absolute Value.

00:38

All this guy does is take negatives and turn them into positives. Of course, he also takes

00:42

positives and keeps them positive. We’re talking a whole lot of positivity.

00:47

Absolute Value determines how many spots away a number is from zero on the Number Line.

00:54

You could never be a negative number of spots away from zero, which is why Absolute Value

00:58

is always so dang positive. You can tell you’re dealing with an Absolute

01:01

Value because you’ll see a number surrounded by bars on either side. It looks almost like

01:06

they’re in prison or, as Absolute Value would say, “on vacation.”

01:10

Take any number, put it through the Absolute Value machine, and you’ll get its true colors.

01:15

Say you want to find the Absolute Value of the number seven.

01:18

First, we put it in “prison” so we know we’re looking for the Absolute Value, and

01:22

not just looking at a run-of-the-mill seven. Then we can count the spaces between zero

01:27

and seven… which, surprise surprise, is seven.

01:31

It will be the same story for every single positive number…

01:34

which makes our job easier. However, it’s a bit different when we have a negative number.

01:39

Suppose we want to find the Absolute Value of negative three. First we jail that sucker…

01:45

and then we locate it on the Number Line. We count three spaces in-between negative

01:48

three and zero, and so our Absolute Value is three.

01:54

But what if we have a number with more than one negative sign? Suppose it’s been hoarding

01:58

them since 1973 and has accumulated three hundred of them?

02:02

Doesn’t matter. No matter how many times you reflect the number three across zero…

02:07

It will always be exactly three spaces away from zero. Therefore, its Absolute Value will

02:12

always be three. Being so positive all the time can definitely

02:16

lift your mood, and keep you from being down in the dumps.

02:19

Absolute Value is about as upbeat as they come. Which can actually be really annoying

02:24

sometimes. If you tell anyone else we’ll deny it, but

02:28

boy, we hate that guy.

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