Question Video: Using Order of Operations to Evaluate Numerical Expressions Involving Absolute Value

Video Transcript

Evaluate the absolute value of 24 minus nine plus the absolute value of 17 minus 20.

In order to evaluate, we must first understand what this bars mean. They mean that we take the absolute value of whatever is the inside, which means it will always be positive. 24 minus nine is 15, bring down our absolute value bars. 17 minus 20 is negative three, and we’ll bring down those absolute value bars.

So the absolute value of 15 means we need to take the positive of 15, which is simply 15. Now the absolute value of negative three is going to be positive three, because whether it’s negative three or positive three doesn’t matter because when we take the absolute value, it will always be positive. So now we need to take 15 plus three, making our final answer 18.