How do you find the distance when given two coordinate points?

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Answer 1 · 2014-11-06T16:00:01

Distance Formula

The distance #D# between two points #(x_1,y_1)# and #(x_2,y_2)# can be found by

#D=sqrt{(x_2-x_1)^2+(y_2-y_1)^2}#

Example

Find the distance between the points #(1,-2)# and #(5,1)#.

Let #(x_1,y_1)=(1,-2)# and #(x_2,y_2)=(5,1)#.

By Distance Formula above,

#D=sqrt{(5-1)^2+[1-(-2)]^2}=sqrt{16+9}=sqrt{25}=5#

I hope that this was helpful.