Those of you who follow these sections, first of all thank you. Second of all, I have modified Sections EP 2 and 3 by making the formal definition of absolute value a part of the lesson. I received a comment from someone who I highly respect; his advice was to include it because “I think there is merit - at least for stronger students - in the logical training subsumed in using that definition to solve absolute value problems.” I agree, so now it is included. I don’t insist that everyone master the definition; it is stated, and like most students, they will glom on to the procedure.
Thank you again for your interest in this series on traditional math.