Question

The following numbers are the coordinates of two points on a number line. State the distance between the points $-2.5$ and 4.6.

Short answer

The distance between the two points is 7.1.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Apply the absolute difference formula.

The Distance can be calculated by taking the absolute value of the difference of coordinates of points. The absolute difference of two real numbers x and y can be calculated by $\left|x-y\right|$. It describes the distance on the real line between the points corresponding tox and y.

Step 2. Calculate the absolute difference.

Let $x=-2.5$ and $y=4.6$ be the coordinates of two points $\left(-2.5,4.6\right)$.

Step 3. Description of step.

Substitute $-2.5$for x and 4.6 for y to determine the absolute value difference.

$\begin{array}{l}\text{distance}=|x-y|\\ =|-2.5-4.6|\\ =7.1\end{array}$

Hence, the distance between the two points is $7.1$.