Question

Jason plotted the points (4,4) and (-4,-4) on a coordinate plane. He says that the distance between the two points is 8 units because l4l + l-4l =8. What mistake is Jason making?

Answer 1

The distance between two points is calculated through the equation,
                                 d = √(x₂ - x₁)² + (y₂ - y₁)²
Substituting the known values from the given above,
                                d = √(4 - -4)² + (4 - -4)²
                                  d = 8√2 = 11.31
The distance between the points is approximately equal to 11.31. The value that Jason presented is not the real distance because it does not account for the other set of coordinates.