Let's begin by recalling the definition of the absolute value.
Absolute Value of a Number
It is a distance between the number and 0 on a number line.
In other words, the absolute value of a number is the non-negative value of that number. The absolute value of a number a can be written as |a|.
|a| = a and |- a| = a
Now, we want to simplify the given absolute value expression. We can start by finding the absolute value of the given number.
Let's imagine that our friend lives 2 miles from the place where they sell the best ice cream in the town. However, we live on one side of the ice cream parlor and our friend lives on the opposite side of that place. We can use the number line to visualize this situation.
Here we use the absolute value to say that we have the same distance from the ice cream parlor as our friend because we talk about the distance and the direction does not matter.
