Absolute Value
The absolute value of a number x, denoted as |x| is defined as the positive (or zero) distance from the number zero to the number x.
In other words, the absolute value of any number is never negative.
For example:
|2| = 2
|0|= 0
|-1| = 1
|-2| = 2
Note the second and fourth examples give the same result, even if the original numbers were different.
This means that if we know that
|n| = 3
then, n can take two possible values, n=3 or n=-3