Jason plotted the point (4, 4) and (-4, -4) on a coordinate plane. he says that the distance between the two points is 8 because |4| + |-4| = 8. what mistake is jason making?

Jason is ignoring the fact that the line going throught these two points is going to form a slope, so he cannot simply subtract those two values. He must either use the distance formula or make a right triangle from the two points to find the length using the Pythagorean theorem.

Just divide the x axis (the top) by 2 or multiply the y axis (the bottom) by 2