A place is above sea level and another is below sea level. What is the difference of level between the two places?
Let's calculate the distance between the given two places.
Let's take the the value of above sea level as and below sea level is
So, distance between two places =
Since absolute value of a number denotes the distance between zero and that number in a number line.
Also, if the given numbers are of like signs, let's add the absolute values directly and give the common sign for the result.