College Algebra / Unit 1 Alg 043 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Dropped-Absolute-Value Error
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The idea
The dropped-absolute-value error simplifies √(x²) to x; for negative x that answer has the wrong sign, and the correct value is |x|.
In practice
At x = −4, the error returns −4 while √16 is 4. One dropped pair of bars, one flipped sign.
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