Definition:Absolute Difference

Definition

Let $a$ and $b$ be real numbers.

The absolute difference between $a$ and $b$ is defined and denoted as:

$\size {a - b}$

where $\size {\, \cdot \,}$ is the absolute value function.

That is, the result of the smaller number subtracted from the larger.

Also known as

The absolute difference between two real numbers is usually referred to just as their difference.

However, this usage is ambiguous, so is deprecated on $\mathsf{Pr} \infty \mathsf{fWiki}$.

Also see

• Results about absolute difference can be found here.

Sources

• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): difference
• 2021: Richard Earl and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (6th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): difference