This is the beginning of a series of tutorials that will aid you in understanding the concepts of Algebra. Tutorial 1 will demonstrate how to find the distance and midpoint of two points on a graph. The distance formula is derived using the Pythagorean Theorem    (a² + b² = c²). A right triangle can be constructed from two points on a line as demonstrated in figure 1.1. From this triangle we have the distance of both legs A and B, after finding these two legs of the triangle we can use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the hypotenuse (Distance between our points) of the triangle.

Click on a step to see it displayed figure1.1

The first step in finding the distance between two points on a line is to construct a right triangle between the points. With the horizontal and vertical lines formed you can find the distance of these lines individually by taking the absolute value of the difference of the two x values (the distance of your horizontal line) and the absolute value of the difference of the two y values (the distance of your vertical line). With the distance of the vertical and horizontal lines (The A and B values of the Pythagorean Theorem) You can now solve for the hypotenuse (the distance between points).

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