<span>In mathematics, the </span>absolute value<span> <span>or modulus. | x. | of a real number x is the
non-negative </span></span>value<span> of x
without regard to its sign. So both shawn and brielle are correct since
both function will have the same answer, because it will just cancel out the
sign.</span>
You're less likely to make mistakes reading or writing very big and very small numbers if you use scientific notation. It also makes it much easier to tell at a glance which numbers are bigger or smaller without counting long strings of zeros.
