How do I find the distance on the coordinate system from the point (-3,4) and the point (8,-7)???
Are you familiar with pythagorean theorem?
sort of..
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
|dw:1356064152448:dw| If you know the lengths of sides a and b, then you can use that formula to find the length of side c.
In this particular case, you have points (-3,4) and (8,-7) which you can plot and make a triangle: |dw:1356064271589:dw|
Notice that if you're given points (a,b) and (c,d), then you can figure out a third point (a,d) to create a right triangle along with the lengths of sides a and b. Furthermore, you can determine the lengths of the sides.
Now you can use a^2 + b^2 = c^2 (pythagorean theorem) to figure out the length of the third side which would give you the distance between the two given points.
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