I looked at a video from Khan Academy on limits at infinity and in the video, the instructor said $\sqrt {x^2}$ is 'essentially taking the absolute value of x; |x|'. I couldn't understand why is the same thing. Is it because when we take the principal root of $x^2$, we are always going to have a positive outcome and absolute value does that as well? So, Why and When do we use the absolute value?
Thank you. P.S I am just learning the basics of calculus.