Khan/khan-exercises — Issue #5801: Comparing absolute values - concept inconsistency
Author: KhanBugz
Created: 2011-11-08 18:19:39+00:00
State: open
Labels: firefox

Reporter: theceiligirl@safe-mail.net

It seems to me that there are two ways to think about absolute value, the one way would be to compare the numbers like you would money, like which one is more and which one is less (than nothing). but then there is also what Sal explained in the video, he seemed to be saying that negative and positive don't really matter and that, for example, -5 has the same absolute value as +5, being 5.

So to try to explain my problem, I was doing the exercise and tried to work from the point of view that Sal presented, but they kept switching concepts on me. For example-

Question #1
-5 __ 3
My answer: >
my result: correct.

Question #2
-7 __ 4
My answer: > (different question, same concept, right?)
My result: incorrect (???)

Anyway, I hope I made myself somewhat understandable, and it would be really cool if anybody knows about my problem, I could get some help.

Thanks.

PS. this isn't the first time I have noticed things like this.

[comparing_absolute_values.html?seed=195&problem=0](http://sandcastle.khanacademy.org/media/castles/Khan:master/exercises/comparing_absolute_values.html?seed=195&problem=0&debug)

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