How would you express the difference between two values mathematically?

Expressing the difference between two values mathematically is accomplished by using the subtraction symbol. When you want to find out how much one value differs from another, you subtract one value from the other. For example, if you have two numbers, x and y, and you want to determine how much larger x is than y, you would express this as x - y. The result of this operation gives you the difference.

The equals sign denotes equality between two expressions but does not directly express the concept of difference. The addition symbol indicates combining values, while the multiplication symbol represents scaling or repeated addition. Neither of these operations captures the idea of finding the difference between two values, which is solely the domain of subtraction.