I suspect the absolute value function may be difficult to understand because it involves "negative numbers that aren't negative." One way to define the absolute value of x is:
|x|={−x,x,x<00≤x
I think the −x confuses students, causing them to think that "sometimes the output of the function is negative."
Answers & Comments
Answer:
I suspect the absolute value function may be difficult to understand because it involves "negative numbers that aren't negative." One way to define the absolute value of x is:
|x|={−x,x,x<00≤x
I think the −x confuses students, causing them to think that "sometimes the output of the function is negative."