<PRE><B>Question 359497</B>
Well, you don&#39;t really need a number line to solve this. &lt;br&gt;

Whenever you use absolute value, you are in a sense, just finding the number&#39;s distance from the number line.&lt;br&gt;

Absolute value is defined as this for |x|:&lt;br&gt;

If x&lt;0, then |x|=-x&lt;br&gt;

If x&gt;=0, then |x|=x&lt;br&gt;

So for your first example, you have -3 and +1&lt;br&gt;

The absolute value of -3 is 3&lt;br&gt;

The absolute value of +1 is 1&lt;br&gt;

3 is bigger than 1, so -3 has a bigger absolute value!&lt;br&gt;

For your second example of -2 and +4&lt;br&gt;

The absolute value of -2 is 2&lt;br&gt;

The absolute value of +4 is 4&lt;br&gt;

Thus +4 would have the bigger absolute value.&lt;br&gt;

And in both cases, the number with the BIGGER absolute value would be farther away from zero on the number line.&lt;br&gt;

In general, the farther away you get from zero on the number line, the bigger the absolute value of those numbers!!!&lt;br&gt;

I hope this helps!&lt;br&gt;</PRE>