Question

Can you exchange the coordinates of points ( x 1, y 1) and ( x 2, y 2) in the distance formula and still find the correct distance?

Answer 1

Answer:

yes

Step-by-step explanation:

As an example

(x₁, y₁ ) = (1,2) and (x₂, y₂ ) = (5,3), then

d = $\sqrt{(5-1)^2+(3-2)^2}$ = $\sqrt{4^2+1^2}$ = $\sqrt{16+1}$ = $\sqrt{17}$

Now let (x₁, y₁ ) = (5,3) and (x₂, y₂ ) = (1,2), then

d = $\sqrt{(1-5)^2+(2-3)^2}$ = $\sqrt{(-4)^2+(-1)^2}$ = $\sqrt{16+1}$ = $\sqrt{17}$