What is the difference between 9 and 3?

What is the difference between 9 and 3?

• A. 6
• B. 9
• C. 3
• D. 12

Answer: (A)

Finding the difference between two numbers means measuring how far apart they are on a number line, which you do by subtracting the smaller number from the larger one. Here, 9 minus 3 equals 6, so the distance between 9 and 3 is 6. On a number line, moving from 3 up to 9 you pass six unit steps, which shows why the difference is 6. The other values aren’t the distance between 9 and 3: 9 would come from a different calculation, 3 would come from subtracting in the reverse way or measuring a different amount, and 12 is the sum of the two numbers, not their difference.

Finding the difference between two numbers means measuring how far apart they are on a number line, which you do by subtracting the smaller number from the larger one. Here, 9 minus 3 equals 6, so the distance between 9 and 3 is 6. On a number line, moving from 3 up to 9 you pass six unit steps, which shows why the difference is 6. The other values aren’t the distance between 9 and 3: 9 would come from a different calculation, 3 would come from subtracting in the reverse way or measuring a different amount, and 12 is the sum of the two numbers, not their difference.