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Absolute Value

The Absolute Value of a number answers the question: how far away from 0 is it? It ignores the sign, so it's always zero or positive.

It's written with vertical bars, ∣x∣|x|. For example, ∣−3∣=3|-3| = 3 and ∣3∣=3|3| = 3.

Formally:

∣x∣={xif x≥0−xif x<0 |x| = \begin{cases} x & \text{if } x \geq 0 \\ -x & \text{if } x < 0 \end{cases}