When is the absolute value of a difference equal to the difference of the absolute value?
C cmtoland New member Joined Sep 8, 2015 Messages 2 Sep 8, 2015 #1 When is the absolute value of a difference equal to the difference of the absolute value? Last edited by a moderator: Sep 8, 2015
stapel Super Moderator Staff member Joined Feb 4, 2004 Messages 16,583 Sep 8, 2015 #2 cmtoland said: When is the absolute value of a difference equal to the difference of the absolute value? Click to expand... What are your thoughts? What have you tried? How far have you gotten? Where are you stuck? For instance, you started by trying various permutations of the inputs they've asked you to compare, such as: . . . . .|3 - 5| . . . . .|3| - |5| . . . . .|5 - 3| . . . . .|5| - |3| . . . . .|5 - 5| . . . . .|5| - |5| You continued with pairs of numbers, as in the above, until you started noticing patterns, and... then what? Please be complete. Thank you! ;-)
cmtoland said: When is the absolute value of a difference equal to the difference of the absolute value? Click to expand... What are your thoughts? What have you tried? How far have you gotten? Where are you stuck? For instance, you started by trying various permutations of the inputs they've asked you to compare, such as: . . . . .|3 - 5| . . . . .|3| - |5| . . . . .|5 - 3| . . . . .|5| - |3| . . . . .|5 - 5| . . . . .|5| - |5| You continued with pairs of numbers, as in the above, until you started noticing patterns, and... then what? Please be complete. Thank you! ;-)
8 8char New member Joined Sep 9, 2015 Messages 3 Sep 9, 2015 #3 Hints: |5-6| is not equal to |5|-|6|. Meanwhile... |6-5| = |6|-|5|.
8 8char New member Joined Sep 9, 2015 Messages 3 Sep 9, 2015 #4 hint Hints: Think about whether x-y in |x-y| is positive or negative.