A positive difference corresponds to which directional shift?

• A. To the right
• B. To the left
• C. No shift
• D. Both

Answer: (A)

A positive difference means the feature appears at a later point along the axis, which sits to the right on graphs where the x-axis runs left to right (such as time or retention time). So the shift is toward larger x-values. In practical terms, a peak moving to the right indicates a positive difference relative to a reference, while a peak moving to the left would indicate a negative difference; identical positions yield no shift.