Let's talk about Absolute Value functions.
Absolute Value Functions
An Absolute Value is defined as the distance a number is from 0 on a number line.
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.