• Trailblazing Braille Taser@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 months ago

      I don’t understand this argument. I’ve heard high school teachers decree it as a mathematical truth before.

      Do we all agree absolute value is a function from reals to reals? If so, the absolute value of any real number is nonnegative. It can be zero or any positive numbers.

      Case closed, right?

      • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It’s like taking a signed int and turning it into an unsigned int though. It doesn’t become positive it just loses its sign.

      • Mossy Feathers@pawb.social
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        8 months ago

        It was my understanding that it’s like velocity vs speed. Positive/Negative numbers have a directional component, that is that they are above or below zero. Absolute values, however, lack a direction. They’re a value, but they don’t tell you if the value is positive or negative.

        • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Absolute value shows only distance from the 0 value on the number line without the direction. All distances are positive when viewed without direction.

    • RogueBanana@lemmy.zip
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      8 months ago

      If your task is to turn any number that could be negative into positive then you would use abs right?