Absolute value problem models
Absolute value problems can be viewed in terms of distance.
For example, |x - 3| = 2 means that the distance between x and 3 is 2.
This means that x is 2 units to the right or left of 3, so x = 1 or x = 5.
In a similar fashion, |x - 3| < 2 says the distance between
x and 3 is less than 2, so the result is a line segment.
In the third case, |x - 3| > 2 says the distance between
x and 3 is more than 2, so the result is two rays.