Distance Formula

Pronunciation: /ˈdɪst.əns ˈfɔɹ.mjə.lə/ Explain

Click on the blue points and drag them to change the figure. The distance formula is the square root of the square of the difference in x plus the square of the difference in y. Manipulative 1 - Distance formula Created with GeoGebra.

The distance formula is used to calculate the distance between any two points.[2] For the distance between the origin and a point in a plane, the formula is where the coordinate of the point is The formula for the distance between any two points on the Cartesian plane is The distance formula is derived from the Pythagorean theorem which states for a right triangle with legs of length A and B, and an hypotenuse of length C, then the relationship A2 + B2 = C2 is always true.

References

1. McAdams, David E.. All Math Words Dictionary, distance. 2nd Classroom edition 20150108-4799968. pg 63-64. Life is a Story Problem LLC. January 8, 2015. Buy the book
2. Barnett Rich, Christopher Thomas. Schaum's Outline of Geometry. 4th edition. pg 206. McGraw-Hill. August 13, 2008. Last Accessed 7/3/2018. Buy the book
3. John Sparks. The Student's Essential Formula Book. pg 33. AuthorHouse. July 12, 2004. Last Accessed 7/3/2018. Buy the book

Cite this article as:

McAdams, David E. Distance Formula. 4/20/2019. All Math Words Encyclopedia. Life is a Story Problem LLC. http://www.allmathwords.org/en/d/distanceformula.html.

Image Credits

• All images and manipulatives are by David McAdams unless otherwise stated. All images by David McAdams are Copyright © Life is a Story Problem LLC and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Revision History

4/20/2019: Updated equations and expressions to the new format (McAdams, David E.)
12/21/2018: Reviewed and corrected IPA pronunication. (McAdams, David E.)
7/4/2018: Removed broken links, updated license, implemented new markup, implemented new Geogebra protocol. (McAdams, David E.)
1/23/2010: Added "References". (McAdams, David E.)
12/12/2008: Added manipulative 1. (McAdams, David E.)
11/25/2008: Changed equations to images. (McAdams, David E.)
7/12/2008: Changed equations to Hot_Eqn. (McAdams, David E.)
2/4/2008: Fixed spelling error. (McAdams, David E.)
7/12/2007: Initial version. (McAdams, David E.)