On a standard number line, point A is located at -7 and point B is located at 5. What is t… — ACT

On a standard number line, point $A$ is located at $-7$ and point $B$ is located at $5$ . What is the distance between point $A$ and point $B$ ?

Answer: 12

The distance between the two points is 12.

The distance between two points on a number line is the absolute value of their difference. Calculating

|-7 - 5|

yields

|-12|

, which is

12

. Alternatively, subtracting the lesser coordinate from the greater coordinate gives

5 - (-7) = 5 + 7 = 12

Identify the coordinates of the two points on the number line.

The coordinates are

-7

for point

A

and

5

for point

B

These coordinates represent the positions from which we need to find the distance.

Apply the absolute value formula for the distance between two points,

|a - b|

The expression is

|-7 - 5|

Distance on a number line is always non-negative and is defined by the absolute value of the difference between the two coordinates.

Perform the subtraction and find the absolute value.

|-12| = 12

Subtracting

5

from

-7

gives

-12

, and the absolute value of

-12

12

The distance between two points

a

and

b

on a number line is given by

|a - b|

Estimated Time:45s

Question