Question

Use the absolute value to express the distance between 12 and -5 on a number line

Answer 1

The distance between two numbers
`x` and
`y` is given by the absolute value of their difference,
`|x-y|`.

So the distance on the number line between
`12` and
`-5` is


`|12-(-5)|=|12+5|=|17|=17`