What is the absolute value of a number?

• A. The opposite of a number.
• B. The product of a number and -1.
• C. The sum of a number and its absolute value.
• D. The distance a number is from zero on a number line.

Answer: (D)

Absolute value tells you how far a number is from zero on the number line. It ignores direction, so the distance is always nonnegative. For example, the absolute value of 7 is 7, and the absolute value of −4 is 4. This distance view helps when you’re thinking about magnitude without caring about whether the number is positive or negative.

Why the other ideas don’t fit: the opposite of a number is just its negation, not a distance from zero; multiplying a number by −1 flips its sign, not its distance; adding a number to its absolute value gives a result that depends on the sign of the number and isn’t the constant distance from zero.