Treat absolute value bars
as parentheses: do what's inside first. Take the absolute value of -3 and add that to the absolute value of +2. Remember, those absolute value bars turn whatever's inside positive.
|-3| + |2| = 3 + 2 = 5
Boom: the answer is 5.
Example 2
What is -|-6|?
All we've gotta do here is take
the absolute value of -6, then take the negative of that number.
-|-6| = -(6) = -6
Example 3
Solve:
|7 – 9|
Again, treat the absolute value bars as parentheses: simplify the stuff inside first.
|7 – 9| = |-2|
Then take the absolute value.
|-2| = 2
Nailed it.
Example 4
Solve:
|-5 + 3| – |-2 – 1|
Treat each set of absolute value bars as a set of parentheses. Simplify each separately, then subtract.
|-5 + 3| – |-2 – 1| = |-2| – |-3|
Now grab the absolute value of -2 and -3, which turns them both positive.
|-2| – |-3| = 2 – 3
Finish up with some good old-fashioned subtraction.