A learner reports the distance from -5 to 3 as 2 units, subtracting 3 from 5. What is the correct distance?

Explanation

Counting from -5 up to zero uses five steps and continuing on to 3 uses three more, so the walk between the two marks takes eight steps in all. Subtracting the magnitudes works only when both values sit on the same side of zero, where one distance lies inside the other, and a signed figure of -8 units records the direction of the walk rather than its length.