Question

What the distance

Answer 1

To find the linear distance between two coordinate points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) you can use the following formula:

\[Distance = \sqrt{(x _{1}-x _{2})^{2}+(y _{1}-y _{2})^{2}}\]

This is based on the Pythagorean theorem, if you are familiar with that. Conceptually, you can imagine that you are drawing a right triangle with the line segment connecting two points as the hypotenuse; the formula above allows you to solve for the length of the hypotenuse, i.e. the distance between the two points.

When using this formula, it is important to keep the order of x1 and x2 consistent with y1 and y2; if you do x1-x2, you have to use y1-y2; vice-versa, if you go with x2-x1, you have to use y2-y1. Either order works, as long as it is consistent.

Try applying the formula to this problem, and I will be happy to check your work, if you like :)