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The numbers are -4.02 and 3.63. The standard Percent Difference formula $$|x-y|/((x+y)/2)$$ does not work for negative numbers.

I have also used various forms that include taking the abs of individual numbers and nothing has worked.

So to get to the title of the post, how would one calculate the percent difference of these two numbers?

Sebastiano
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alaska80
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    I've never seen or used percent difference (or relative difference) before, but I would suspect your formula is not supposed to be used with values of opposite sign. I see on wiki there are various alternatives to using $\frac{x+y}{2}$ in the denominator, perhaps dividing by $\frac{|x|+|y|}{2}$ is applicaple for you? I believe it depends on your context. – Milten Oct 28 '21 at 10:37
  • See https://math.stackexchange.com/q/2347368/620957 – Milten Oct 28 '21 at 10:39

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