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 Absolute value

Straight lines on both sides of an expression or number are called absolute value signs.

The absolute value of a number is its value when the sign is removed, i.e. the distance of a number to zero.

eg. |-3| = 3          e.g|5-12| = |-7| = 7

They are often used with inequalities:

e.g. -3 \leq x \leq 3  can be written as |x| \leq 3 .

This represents the set of numbers between negative 3 and 3 (inclusive of -3 and 3).

Further information