Explain why the distance between two non horizontal parallel lines on a coordinate plane cannot be found using the distance between their y-intercepts.

Question

Question.

Answer 1

The distance between two parallel lines is the length of the line segment that is perpendicular to both lines and whose endpoints are points of intersection with the two parallel lines.

Draw two slanted lines in the coordinate plane. Look at where they intersect the y-axis. The line segment connecting these two points (that part of the y-axis) is not perpendicular to the two parallel lines. The distance between two parallel lines is always the perpendicular distance.