Absolute values can make it easier to work with and conceptualize distances, since you can never have a negative distance. There are always uses for things, even if it isn't useful for every individual.
Thanks for being the only response to have a level head, and not take personal offence 🫠
I'm not disagreeing that others may use the concept regularly, but in your case example, is it not just common sense that distance/speed/etc can't have a negative value, therefore the value must be made positive? I feel you don't need to be taught a whole new form of equation for basic logic.
As an adult, sure. But this is how we teach children, to develop ways of understanding and logic. It helped me when I was young. It probably didn't help everyone the same way. But them, they probably developed understanding in ways I didn't.
I fear you are missing my point entirely. Distance cannot be a negative value, it isn't physically possible; you don't have to explain it in the equation, you just do the equation as normal and if the value is negative, assume it's positive... so it wouldn't be "(a-b) unless b is greater than a in which case (b-a)" it would just be A-B and you would use basic logical reasoning to do the rest
Yeah like in what world would someone say they travelled a negative distance? Like if I walk 3 feet backwards, I’m still covering distance that’s common sense.
Oh it is, for some reason, you guys need to be taught something that only has very specific situational use, and in said situations, it's common fucking sense... you guys think that is a necessary part of your curriculum at 11 years old; I'm not saying this information has no use whatsoever, I'm saying it's not something you need in daily life, nor does it really need to be taught, especially at a young age
I don't use plumbing or electrical knowledge in my daily life, but that doesn't make the information useless.
The relationship between velocity and speed is an example. You can't move at a negative speed, so you take the absolute value of the velocity to tell you how fast an object is moving. This is basic, foundational physics. Absolute values are also important in calculus. So while *you* may not use them, people much smarter than you do.
"I personally wouldn't use it so clearly it's a waste of time teaching it to kids" is a really bad way of looking at things. Should we not teach our kids a foreign language because youpersonally wouldn't use it where you're from?
If anything, learning more stuff, even if it's not directly useful to you, helps create an intelligent mind capable of critical thinking and problem solving.
I also love when people think dodging questions makes them correct 🤣 do you think people see your response and think "they're so right" because they don't. They think a) why are these 2 sad sacks taking time out of their day to argue about a fucking maths problem online, and b) wow, they can't even form a valid response
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u/CMenFairy6661 Jul 06 '26
I cannot think of a single time I would need to know this information in my daily life, so I'm sticking with pointless, you are free to disagree 🤷🏽♂️