Question

If Osa is in a submarine that is 200 feet below sea level and Jill is hiking a mountain and is at 311 feet above sea level, which person is closest to zero ground level?

Answer 1

Osa is closer because 200 is smaller than 311

Because Osa is below sea level, we use a negative value to represent the height. Osa's height is -200. When comparing distances to 0, we just focus on the positive version of each number.