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Absolute value; -ve versus +ve

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ruthtconnolly
 Post subject: Absolute value; -ve versus +ve
 Post Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:01 pm 
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Course Students


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In one sample question asking "which point has the greatest absolute value" (the choices were -2, -1, 0, 1, and 2), the answer was the point over -2. Do negative numbers have greater absolute values than their positive counterparts?
Thanks!
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eileen1017
 Post subject: Re: Absolute value; -ve versus +ve
 Post Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:09 pm 
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Posts: 11
ruthtconnolly wrote:
In one sample question asking "which point has the greatest absolute value" (the choices were -2, -1, 0, 1, and 2), the answer was the point over -2. Do negative numbers have greater absolute values than their positive counterparts?
Thanks!


Does it have diagram as where the point is?

My understanding of this question is that the distance between -2 and its absolute value is the greatest.
The number 2 also have absolute value of 2, but the distance is 0.
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RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: Absolute value; -ve versus +ve
 Post Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:22 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
ha, no, this is a misprint. this is actually an official guide question, but, because it's misprinted, i'll just tell you about it without giving sufficient details from which the problem could be deduced (remember we're technically not allowed to post og problems here).

in that problem, the rightmost arrow is supposed to be just to the left of 2, while the leftmost arrow is supposed to be at -2 itself. that should resolve the issue.

to the latter poster: no, the problem is not looking for the greatest distance between the # and its absolute value, although that would certainly be a far more interesting problem. the problem is really just looking for the biggest absolute value; that's all.

--

the true irony of this problem is that the earlier editions of the book have it printed correctly, while the typographical error is present in the later editions.
strange.
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