Final answer:
The distance between the points (4,-2) and (4,-5) is calculated by finding the absolute value of the difference in y-coordinates, which is 3 units.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the distance between the points (4,-2) and (4,-5), we can use the distance formula, which is derived from the Pythagorean theorem for a Cartesian coordinate system. However, since the x-coordinates of the given points are the same, this simply becomes a matter of subtracting the y-coordinates to determine how far apart the points are vertically. Therefore, we calculate the distance as the absolute value of the difference in y-coordinates: |(-2) - (-5)| = |-2 + 5| = |3| = 3.
The distance is a scalar quantity, which means it is always positive and does not have a direction associated with it. Hence, the distance between the two points is 3 units.