Given:
x + y = 42
xy = 437
Find:
|x - y|
Substitute the first equation into the expression for |x - y| to get:
|x - y| = √((x + y)^2 - 4xy)
Substitute the given values for x + y and xy into this expression to get:
|x - y| = √((42^2) - 4(437)) = √(1764 - 1748) = √(16) = 4
Therefore, the absolute difference between the numbers is 4.