Find the distance between the points (1,-8) and (-7,-2)

Question

amistre64 · Answer

hmm, could you tell the distance a point is from the origin easier?

anonymous · Answer

It's #5

amistre64 · Answer

your idea is good, but you seem to be plugging in the values into the wrong spots, which i do to so i steer away from formulas

amistre64 · Answer

if we know a point (a,b) then its distance from the origin is simply:  sqrt(a^2 + b^2)

amistre64 · Answer

so to start with, what i do is just move the points so one of them is at the origin

(1,-8) and (-7,-2)
-1  8          -1  8
----------------
  0,0           -8, 6
                  
                 sqrt(8^2 + 6^2) is our distance between the points

amistre64 · Answer

in effect, instead of plugging in numbers in to the wrong spots, stepping thru the process organizes the data better to avoid the errors

anonymous · Answer

Thank you very much for your explanation.

amistre64 · Answer

youre welcome.  your idea was good, but formulas have their weaknesses ... human error :)

anonymous · Answer

You're right! :D