Math Is Fun Forum

owenflo

Member

Registered: 2014-07-21

Posts: 115

Distance between 2 points please help

Find the distance between the two points:

11. (-20, -4) and (-7, -6)

A4
BSQRT(61)
CSQRT(290)
D5
E SQRT(173)
F SQRT(180)

12. (1, 1) and (-4, 1)

A4
BSQRT(61)
CSQRT(290)
D5
E SQRT(173)
F SQRT(180)

13. (-3, 22) and (-14, 35)

A4
BSQRT(61)
CSQRT(290)
D5
E SQRT(173)
F SQRT(180)

14. (9, -0) and (-3, -8)

A4
BSQRT(61)
CSQRT(290)
D4[SQRT(13)]
E 5[SQRT(17)]
F 3[SQRT(180)]

15. (1, 2) and (5, 2)

A4[SQRT(13)]
BSQRT(61)
CSQRT(29)
DSQRT(202)
E 4
F SQRT(60)

owenflo

Member

Registered: 2014-07-21

Posts: 115

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

Please help, have no idea what I am doing please help fast!

phrontister

Real Member

From: The Land of Tomorrow

Registered: 2009-07-12

Posts: 4,879

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

Hi owenflo;

Mathsisfun has a good tutorial about that here.

Last edited by phrontister (2015-10-15 12:46:46)

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"The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do." - Ted Nelson

owenflo

Member

Registered: 2014-07-21

Posts: 115

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

Can you help me check my answers?

phrontister

Real Member

From: The Land of Tomorrow

Registered: 2009-07-12

Posts: 4,879

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

What are they?

Did you use the method taught by your teacher? Did the link I gave you help?

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"The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do." - Ted Nelson

owenflo

Member

Registered: 2014-07-21

Posts: 115

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

Distance Formula:

Given the two points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2), the distance between these points is given by the formula:

Distance Formula

Don't let the subscripts scare you. They only indicate that there is a "first" point and a "second" point; that is, that you have two points. Whichever one you call "first" or "second" is up to you.

Find the distance between the points (-2, -3) and (-4, 4).
Just plug them in to the Distance Formula:

Then the distance is sqrt(53), or about 7.28, rounded to two decimal places.

d = sqrt(53)

THIS IS WHAT MY TEACHER GAVE ME

phrontister

Real Member

From: The Land of Tomorrow

Registered: 2009-07-12

Posts: 4,879

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

That can't be all the information you were given...the 'Distance Formula' is missing. What is that formula?

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"The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do." - Ted Nelson

owenflo

Member

Registered: 2014-07-21

Posts: 115

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

d=sqrt(x^2-x^1)^2+(y^2-y^1)^2

phrontister

Real Member

From: The Land of Tomorrow

Registered: 2009-07-12

Posts: 4,879

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

That is incorrect...please check.

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"The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do." - Ted Nelson

owenflo

Member

Registered: 2014-07-21

Posts: 115

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

c^2+a^2=b^2

phrontister

Real Member

From: The Land of Tomorrow

Registered: 2009-07-12

Posts: 4,879

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

No...that's Pythagoras (usually expressed as a² + b² = c²) , where, in a right angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.

I didn't think of this at first, but it appears that the only problem with your posts 6 & 8 is that you didn't know how to use subscripts, which, from your teacher's statement "Don't let the subscripts scare you", were obviously used.

I don't know any way to display subscripts on this forum other than through LaTeX, for which codehogs has a good online editor here.

Interpreting what you wrote in post #8, the Distance Formula form your teacher gave you is this:

Is that so? If it is, it is correct, and you should be able to solve all of the questions by plugging the points into the Distance Formula, as your teacher has said.

Here is a video that very simply and clearly, and in just 4:35 minutes, explains "How to Find the Distance Between Two Points - How to Use the Distance Formula". It happens to use the same formula as above.

Last edited by phrontister (2015-10-16 11:30:20)

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"The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do." - Ted Nelson

David

Member

From: Bumpkinland

Registered: 2014-04-23

Posts: 3,164

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

Hi;

Here I visualized question #11 for you. If you notice, we are actually finding the hypotenuse.

The

means "difference of".

Additionally, here's a webpage that could help you visualize the Pythagorean distance formula.
http://www.mathopenref.com/coorddist.html

Last edited by David (2015-10-16 00:20:25)

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owenflo

Member

Registered: 2014-07-21

Posts: 115

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

So the answer is 4? for #11

phrontister

Real Member

From: The Land of Tomorrow

Registered: 2009-07-12

Posts: 4,879

Re: Distance between 2 points please help

Hi owenflo;

Please show your workings so that we can see how you're going with understanding this topic.

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"The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do." - Ted Nelson