Find each sum or difference. -2 - |-4|

Question

Accepted Answer

Hello. Everyone in this video we're going to be looking at this practice problem where we want to perform the subtraction negative six minus the absolute value of negative seven. So in this case because we're working with the absolute value of a negative number. This absolute value here where we're taking the absolute value of negative seven recall that when we take the absolute value of a negative number such as negative A. We get back that same number but positive. So when I take the absolute value of negative A. I get positive a back. So we're going to use keep this rule in mind when we perform our subtraction. So we have negative six minus the absolute value of negative seven which I'll write in red. So in order to perform this subtraction I need to get rid of my absolute value. So I'm going to simplify this absolute value off to the right here I have the absolute value of -7. And once I simplify that or get rid of absolute value It becomes positive seven. Because recall that the absolute value of any negative number is that number but in positive form. So now I can go back to my subtraction and plug in the positive seven In place of the absolute value. So now I have negative six minus positive seven. So you can see that I now have this negative that's still affecting the seven. But that's because this negative was outside the absolute value in my original problem. So the absolute value can't change that negative into a positive. So even though my seven turned positive it's now negative again because of the subtraction. So now you can see that I'm dealing with a subtraction where I have two negative numbers. So because my numbers that I'm subtracting have the same sign. I can turn this into a multiplication. But keeping in mind that my answer will need to be negative because if we think of a number line I'll say this is negative six and I need to subtract seven. That means I need to go over to the left seven times. So seven. So I need to figure out what this number is. And if I finish the digits on this number line you can see that once I moved to the left seven times I got negative 13. So negative six minus seven is equal to negative 13. You can also arrive at this answer without drawing the number line and thinking six plus seven is equal to 13. But these are both negative. So I need to make sure that my answer is also negative. So these are two ways arriving at the same answer of -13 for this subtraction. And you can see that negative 13 aligns with answer choice. D. So hopefully this video helped and see you next time

Find each sum or difference. -2 - |-4|

Key Concepts

Absolute Value

Operations with Integers

Order of Operations

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