Question

can anyone show me how to find the distance between a point and a line?

Answer 1

there are formulas, but you can do it this way:

find the slope of the line, and call it m
define a new slope = -1/m (negative reciprocal)
any line with slope -1/m will be perpendicular to the original line

now find the equation of the line with slope -1/m that goes through point P (the point you want to find the distance to)



next, find the point where these lines intersect (at Q)

finally, find the distance between P and Q using the distance formula