I've just started with absolute value equations and I have a real hard time understanding how to solve this. I got the following question, and I can't make heads or tails out of it.
Assume that $x, y$ are points on the real line. Explain what $|x − y|$ means geometrically. Use this to illustrate the inequalities (as subsets of the real line) below and write the inequality without absolute values.
$3 > |x + 4| \geq 1$
All help will be much appreciated, even as much as small pointers will be more than welcome…
Best Answer
$|x-y|$ is the distance between $x$ and $y$ on a number line.