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.