b(10) means that we need to replace x by 10: b(10) = |3-10|+1 As you can notice, 3-10 is between the lines of the absolute power. So if the answer is positive, you keep positive. If the answer is negative, you transform it to positive. |a| = a and |-a| = a. So |a|=|-a|. So |3-10| = |-7| = |7| = 7.