Where do you actually use absolute value in real life situations?

Answer 1

Where do we actually use absolute value in real

life? Give an example.

I just thought of one; although there may be a better way to do this than Absolute Value. Suppose you were using a Spreadsheet like Excel to create a rough draft of your operating budget for the next year. You have four employees, one took a one year unpaid sabbatical. So you would have Column A with the name of your employees and Column B with their salaries this year. It would look something like this:

Kim Forbes$60,000.00Darryl Star$120,000.00Micheal Burros$34,000.00Aislynn Rodrigues-$52,000.00

If you did a normal Excel calculation you would get:

=SUM(B2:B5)

or

$162,000

That would really not help you with next years budgeting because you expect Aislynn to come back January 1st at her previous salary. That sum only shows you the operating budget, minus Aislynn's salary.

If you used Absolute Value, you would get:

=SUM(B2:B4,ABS(B5))

or

$266,000

That would be a true estimation of your salary costs next year.