McGraw Hill Glencoe Algebra 2, 2012
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McGraw Hill Glencoe Algebra 2, 2012 View details
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Exercise 20 Page 53

Can the absolute value of a number be negative?

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Practice makes perfect

Before we can solve this equation, we need to isolate the absolute value expression using the Properties of Equality.

|p+6|+9=8
|p+6|=- 1

An absolute value measures an expression's distance from a midpoint on a number line. Since distance cannot be negative, the absolute value of a number cannot be negative. | p+6|= - 1 An absolute value cannot be equal to -1, so this equation has no solution.