Let's talk about Absolute Value functions.

Since distance is always positive, absolute value is never negative. The negative symbol represents a direction on the number line, not a distance. On a graph, the distance from -4 to 0 is the same as the distance from 4 to 0: both distances are 4. We can write these distances as follows, using the absolute value notation:

|-4| = 4

|4| = 4

We write absolute value functions the same way, like so:

y = |x + 6|

y = |x - 5|

Let's explore how to graph functions containing absolute values.