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Algebra

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by MartyMurray » Fri Aug 26, 2016 4:36 am
ash4gmat wrote:Can someone help explain the meaning of
[q]=-q

I understand from this that q will be zero in this as absolute value of any number cannot be -ve.
If you mean, |q| = -q, then q could be 0 or q could be negative, as the absolute value of a negative number, q, is the positive distance between q and 0, which is -q.
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by Gaurav Mittal » Fri Aug 26, 2016 8:35 am
Hi

I am not sure whether you meant [q] or |q|? Please confirm

|q| is called absolute value of q and is a very important function from GMAT point of view. GMAT loves to play with the properties of absolute values. Note:

|q| = q if q > 0
|q| = -q if q < 0

hence, if q is -2, |q| = - (-2) = 2.

Let me know if there is any specific doubt.
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by [email protected] » Fri Aug 26, 2016 3:49 pm
Hi ash4gmat,

Is this information from a larger GMAT question? I ask because it looks like it could be from a "Symbolism" question (a prompt that "makes up" a math symbol, tells you what it means, then asks you to perform a calculation with it). If that's the case, then this information tells us what the [ ] symbol 'means' - the rest of the prompt would then give us some additional information so that we could perform a calculation with it.

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by danielle07 » Thu Aug 31, 2017 3:18 am
You're question doesn't seem complete. Can you give the complete details on it?
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by Matt@VeritasPrep » Thu Aug 31, 2017 4:25 pm
danielle07 wrote:You're question doesn't seem complete. Can you give the complete details on it?
(S)he is asking why, for 0 > q, |q| = -q.
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by Matt@VeritasPrep » Thu Aug 31, 2017 4:26 pm
The simplest way to address that question is to try numbers.

|-3| = 3 = -(-3)

|-10| = 10 = -(-10)

etc.

So if x is negative, |x| = -x
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