The Distance

Formula
Table of contents

Recap on slope and Introduction to distance

01

The distance formula and how it is constructed

02
and used
 01

Recap on slope and

introduction to distance

An introduction!
 An introduction!

In algebra and geometry, we usually

work with the coordinate plane, which is
composed of the x (horizontal) and y
(vertical) axes. We can map coordinates
with a pair of values (x, y)

The slope is the average rate of change

between 2 points (calculated as change in
y divided by change in x)
 An introduction!

What if we wanted to find the distance

between two points in the coordinate plane?
What would the distance be between, let’s
say, (3,5) and (5,5)?

Since there is no change in y, we just

subtract the change in x. The distance
between these points is 2
 An introduction!

If we had to find the distance between (7,

4) and (7, 7), we try to find the slope and
find that there is no change in x, so
there’s no slope
Since there’s no change in x, we just
subtract the change in y and get 3 as the
distance
 What happens when you want to find the
distance between 2 points that have a change in y
and a change in x?
This is where the distance formula comes in
 02

The distance formula and how it

is constructed and used

Distance formula
The distance formula

Let’s say we have two points: (1, 3) and (4,

7). Let’s represent them both on the
coordinate plane
The formula
Do this on your own paper: Slope can be represented using rise over run, so sketch the rise
and run by drawing a line up and across. Next label what the rise and the run are

A B
The distance formula

We can see that the rise is 4 and the run is 3. We could trace those and say that
the distance is 7, but there is actually a shorter distance, which is the direct
diagonal between these 2 points
The shortest distance between 2 points is always a straight line and, in our
case, it’s a diagonal. When questions ask for you to find the distance, they most
likely always mean the shortest distance
 B

We now have a right triangle with 2 legs of 4 and 3, and a hypotenuse

that is unknown. We need to find it, and we can use the Pythagorean
theorem, which is a2 + b2 = c2 (a and b are the legs and c is the
hypotenuse)
When we square the legs and add them, we get 4 2 + 32 = c2 which
equals 25 = c2. We get C by taking the square root of 25, which is 5. 5
is the hypotenuse and the distance
Pythagorean theorem
Pythagorean theorem
We used the Pythagorean theorem, but let’s
01 change a few things in our formula so that we
can just plug in values

a2 was just the square of our rise, which is

change in y. Replace a with (y2 – y1). b2 is the
02
square of our run (change in x). Replace b
with (x2 – x1). Now we have:

We want the distance, not distance squared, so

03 we take the square root of both sides, and…
that’s the distance formula!
The distance
formula!
Now that you know where this formula comes from, you will never forget it.
Use the distance formula to find the shortest distance between any two points!
Thanks!
Do you have any questions?
[email protected]
+34 654 321 432
yourwebsite.com

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