absolute value makes anything positive
exg
in physics, a downward direction is negative units and a upward is positive
so if you wanted to find out how many units the rocket went in the journey, you could find out ex
a rocket went 9 units up and then went -9 unit up (9 units down)
how far did it travel
absolute value makes the -9 into positive so it is 9 total units so total is 9+9=18