How do you solve |5 - t| = 3?

1 Answer
Jul 15, 2016

the answer is 2

Edit: The answer can also be 8.

Explanation:

The first case gives:

5 - t = 3

solve for t

- t = 3 - 5

- t = -2

implies t = 2

Edit: What the magnitude function does here is transform negative solutions to positive, this means that we have two cases:

5-t = 3 as the original answer had

and

5-t = -3

therefore t = 5-3 or t = 5+3

implies t =2 or 8