Question

Select the set of equations that would be used to solve the following absolute value equation:|x-5|=20

Answer 1

X-5= 20
x-5= -20

Absolute value makes a negative positive, so when you are solving x-5 could have been 20 originally or -20 originally. Solve for both.

Answer 2

When setting up to solve an absolute value equation you need to remember that whatever is inside the bars represents a distance of, in this case, 20 units from zero on the number line. This can be 20 to the right or 20 to the left. For this reason we must set up TWO equations and solve both of them.
x - 5 = 20 and x - 5 = - 20