Absolute Value
|a| is the distance from a to the origin on the number line: positives keep themselves, negatives take their opposite, and |0| = 0
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|a| is the distance from a to the origin on the number line: positives keep themselves, negatives take their opposite, and |0| = 0
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Absolute value measures "how far from the origin": distance is never negative, so every absolute value is 0 or positive. Guess whether |a| equals a, −a or 0, then let the distance animation reveal it — positives keep themselves, negatives flip sign, and |0| = 0.
Guess what |a| equals first, then watch the distance-to-origin animation reveal the answer. Random positives, negatives and zero let you practice the three-branch rule: the absolute value of a positive is itself, of a negative is its opposite, and the absolute value of 0 is 0.