SOLUTION: What does the |x| around a number mean? Here is an example of a question that is asking me for a simple "greater than or less than" (equal is not a choice). Q: -2 ___ |-2|

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Question 96142: What does the |x| around a number mean? Here is an example of a question that is asking me for a simple "greater than or less than" (equal is not a choice).
Q: -2 ___ |-2|
A: a. > or b. <

Found 2 solutions by jim_thompson5910, stanbon:
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The vertical bars stand for absolute value

Whenever you take the absolute value any number, it will always result in a positive number.

So in other words, if we evaluate we will get 12. Likewise if we evaluate we will get 12 also. If and we evaluate then as a result. So basically any negative number loses its sign and becomes positive.


So this property can be described through this inequality:


Since our problem becomes:

-2______2 <---------Notice I replaced with

Now we can see that -2 is less than 2, so our answer is




So the answer is B)

Answer by stanbon(75887)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
What does the |x| around a number mean? Here is an example of a question that is asking me for a simple "greater than or less than" (equal is not a choice).
Q: -2 ___ |-2|
A: a. > or b. <
---------------------------
Strictly speaking |-------| means "distance"
Example:
|2 -3| means the distance between 2 and 3 which is 1
|-2| means |-2-0| which is the distance from -2 to 0 which is 2
-------------------
Your problem:
-2______|-2| is the same as saying
-2______ 2
The answer is <
-2 < |-2|
--------------
Cheers,
Stan H.

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