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Question 71832: Find the distance between the points A(4,-3) and B(-4,3).
Help!
Answer by bucky(2189)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! The equation that is used for finding the distance (D) between two points is:
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Now let's identify the two points you were given. Let's call point A (4,-3) point 1 and that
means that x1 = 4 and y1 = -3. That means that point B (-4, 3) is point 2. Therefore,
x2 = -4 and y2 = 3. (If we had let point A be point 2 and point B be point 1, it wouldn't
make any difference in the answer we get for the distance. It would still work out the
same as below even though the values of x1, y1, x2, and y2 would be changed.)
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Now all we have to do is substitute our values for x1, x2, y1, and y2 into the distance
equation. When we do we get:
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This simplifies to:
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And squaring the terms:
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which further reduces to:
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and taking the square root gives you the answer:
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The most important thing to watch out for in Distance problems like these is to not mix
up what values are x1, x2, y1, and y2. Just name one of the points as point 1 and use
its values as x1 and y1 and name the other point as point 2 and use its values as x2 and
y2. Then plug them into the correct places into the Distance equation.
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Hope this helps you to see how to work the equation and find the distance between
points.
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