Monday: 3 1/2 km Tuesday: -2 km Wednesday: -8.75 km Thursday: 5 km ???

Elevation represents distance from sea level. Positive numbers represent elevations that are above sea level and negative numbers represent elevations that are below sea level.
A hiker recorded the distance from sea level that she hiked on 4 different days in the table below.

On which day did the hiker travel the furthest distance?
A. Monday
B. Tuesday
C. Wednesday
D. Thursday

Answer 1

C. Wednesday

To figure out which day was the furthest from sea level, figure out the absolute value of each day. This means that all numbers will be positive.

Monday: #abs"3.5" = color(blue)3.5#

Tuesday: #abs(-2) = color(blue)2#

Wednesday: #abs(-8.75)= color(blue)8.75#

Thursday: #abs"5" = color(blue)5#

Which of these days traveled the furthest from sea level? Basically, which day has the highest absolute value?

#"Wednesday"# has the highest absolute value at #8.75#.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.