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

yes

Explanation:

As an example

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

d =
`√((5-1)^2+(3-2)^2)` =
`√(4^2+1^2)` =
`√(16+1)` =
`√(17)`

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

d =
`√((1-5)^2+(2-3)^2)` =
`√((-4)^2+(-1)^2)` =
`√(16+1)` =
`√(17)`