What is the absolute value of negative nine fourths?

Answer 1

The absolute value of a negative number is the corresponding positive number. In other words, just take the "minus" away.

Imagine a ruler which has zero (0) in the middle like this:

|-5|-4|-3|-2|-1|0|+1|+2|+3|+4|+5|

The absolute value means the distance between our observed point and the middle point.

If we would have taken the absolute value of -4, we would quickly see that -4 is at the same distance away from the middle point as +4. Thus |-4| = 4.

The absolute value of negative nine fourths would therefore be equal to nine fourths (positive):

|-9/4| = 9/4