Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Here’s an unshmoopy question you’ll find on the exam…
Which of the following symbols belongs in place of the question mark for the equation…
absolute value of a + b… blank… absolute value of a + absolute value of b, given that a =
-5 and b = 7? Here are the potential answers:
Before we spoil the ending, hit pause and try it yourself.
OK, so this is just testing whether we understand absolute value…
…and that we can be surgically careful in the numbers we are plugging in to replace
variables. In this case, we just rewrite the base problem…
…and we have the absolute value of negative 5 plus positive 7, which is positive 2.
And yeah, here the absolute value proviso doesn’t really matter.
Plug in the other side now.
And we have the absolute value of a, or -5, which is positive 5, and then b is 7; their
total is 12.
So we have 2 is less than, equal to, or greater than 12.
Well, 2 is less than 12. Not a toughie there.
So the answer is A. Done.
Looks like this problem is strictly… outpatient.