The absolute value of a number is its distance from 0 on the number line. Since distance is always greater than or equal to 0, the absolute value of any number is greater than or equal to 0.
7 > - |- 4.5|
Practice makes perfect
We want to complete the given statement. To do so, we will evaluate the absolute values on both sides.
7 - |- 4.5|
The absolute value of a number is the distance between this number and 0 on the number line. Since distance is always greater than or equal to 0, the absolute value of any number is greater than or equal to 0. The absolute value of a non-negative number is equal to the number, while the absolute value of a negative number is equal to its opposite.
With this in mind, let's simplify the right-hand side!
ccc
- |- 4.5|=- 4.5
We will plot the numbers on a number line to see which one is greater.
We can see that 7 is located to the right of - |- 4.5|. This means it is greater than - |- 4.5|. With this in mind, we can complete our statement.
