Plot the minimum and maximum values on a number line.
|x-24|=8
Practice makes perfect
An absolute value equation always takes the following form.
|x- midpoint|= distance to midpoint
To write an absolute value equation that models the situation, we can begin by thinking about the given minimum and maximum lengths as solutions to the equation. By plotting these points on a number line we can determine the midpoint and the distance from each point to the midpoint.
From the number line, we can see that the midpoint between 16 and 32 is 24, and that the distance from both values to the midpoint is 8. Using this information we can write the following equation.
|x- 24|= 8
Let's solve the equation we created to make sure it has the desired solutions.
