Video Transcript
Fill in the blank: The absolute
value of six minus 14 over four equals blank.
First of all, let’s think about
what we know about absolute value. One way we might talk about
absolute value is the distance of a number from zero on a number line. And we know that distances are
always positive. That means that negative three is
three units from zero and positive three is also three units from zero on a number
line. But back to our question at hand,
we’re taking the absolute value of an expression. And our expression is six minus 14
over four. Before we can find the absolute
value, we need to simplify or solve what’s inside the absolute value bars.
That means we first subtract 14
from six, which is negative eight. Then we’ll have negative eight over
four inside the absolute value bars. Negative eight over four can be
simplified to negative two. And we now need to take the
absolute value of negative two. If we’re thinking about this on a
number line, negative two is two units away from zero. And that means the absolute value
of negative two is two. We fill in the blank with the value
positive two.
