Question

What is the length of the line segment with endpoints (5,-7) and (5,11)?

Answer 1

18

Explanation:

Set the first point as point 1 `color(white)("dd")->P_1->(x_1,y_1)=(5,-7)`

Set the second point as point 2 `->P_2->(x_2,y_2)=(5,color(white)(.)11)`

The first thing to observe is that the value of `x` is the same in both cases. This means that if you were to draw a line connecting the two point it would be parallel to the y axis.

Each point measured horizontally from the y-axis is the same ie 5

So to find the distance between the two point we only need to focus on the `y` values.

`P_2-P_1color(white)("d")=color(white)("d")y_2-y_1color(white)("d")=color(white)("d")11-(-7)color(white)("d")=color(white)("d")11+7color(white)("d")=18`