Absolute difference

The absolute difference of two real numbers ${\displaystyle x}$ and ${\displaystyle y}$ is given by ${\displaystyle |x-y|}$, the absolute value of their difference. It describes the distance on the real line between the points corresponding to ${\displaystyle x}$ and ${\displaystyle y}$, and is a special case of the L^p distance for all ${\displaystyle 1\leq p\leq \infty }$. Its applications in statistics include the absolute deviation from a central tendency.