2014 CEMC Gauss (Grade 8) Problems/Problem 5

Problem

Which of the following integers is closest to zero?

$\text{ (A) }\ -1101\qquad\text{ (B) }\ 1011\qquad\text{ (C) }\ -1010\qquad\text{ (D) }\ -1001\qquad\text{ (E) }\ 1110$

Solution

We need to find the number that has the least distance to 0. To do this, we can take the absolute value of each number, and see which number is the lowest:

$|-1101| = 1101$

$|1011| = 1011$

$|-1010| = 1010$

$|-1001| = 1001$

$|1110| = 1110$

The smallest of these numbers is $1001$ . Thus, the answer is $\boxed {\textbf {(D) } -1001}$ .

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2014 CEMC Gauss (Grade 8) Problems/Problem 5

Problem

Solution