What is the distance from one point to the line? y=-3; (-3,-3)

Question

Please answer this for me!! 

Answer 1

There is a formula for the distance between two points (called "the distance formula").  It can be generalized to find the minimum (least) distance between a given point and the closest point on the line.  You will learn these in later math.

 

Right now, you must realize that the coordinates of points (in the Cartesian Coordinate system) are written in the form (x,y).  This problem has the point (-3, -3) which means the point with x=-3 and y=-3.

 

Also, the line y=-3 is horizontal because it has the same value of y for every possible value of x.

 

Oh, yes, ... the point (-3,-3) is on the line y=-3.  That means that the point (-3.-3) is closest to point (-3,-3) on the line y=-3 because the distance (given by the distance formula or just thinking) is 0.