• Trailblazing Braille Taser@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      9 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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 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 (She/They)
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 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
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          9 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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      9 months ago

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