Mathematics

Grade 10 • Unit 11: Distance Between Points and Lines

Answer Key

Lesson 11.1. The Distance Formula

Test Your Prerequisite Skills
A. Evaluate the following expressions.
a. 𝑥 ! + 3𝑥 − 7 if 𝑥 = −2
Answer: −9
"!
b. + 9 if 𝑥 = 8
!

Answer: 41
c. √𝑥 − 7 if 𝑥 = 9
Answer: −4

d. -𝑥 ! + 𝑦 ! if 𝑥 = 2 and 𝑦 = −4
Answer: 2√5

e. -(𝑥 − 1)! + (𝑦 − 5)! if 𝑥 = −5 and 𝑦 = 13

Answer: 10

Try It Yourself!
1. What will be the length of the hypotenuse in Example 1 if 𝑎 = 10 and 𝑏 = 13?
Answer: 𝑐 = √269
2. Find the distance between the following pairs of points.
a. (0,0) and (−4,3)
Answer: 𝑑 = 5
b. (−2,5) and (8,1)
Answer: 𝑑 = 2√29

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Grade 10 • Unit 11: Distance Between Points and Lines

3. Given the points (−4, −2) and (𝑎, 6), find the value of 𝑎 so that the distance between
the two given points is 10 units.
Answer: 𝑎 = 2 or 𝑎 = −10
4. If the hospital in Example 4 is located at (9, −8), how far is it from the city hall?
Answer: √145 km or 12.04 km

Check Your Understanding

1. Find the length of the third side of the given right triangles below. Note that triangles
are not drawn to scale.
a. b.

Answer: 9 cm Answer: 6 ft
c. d.

Answer: √170 ≈ 13.04 yd Answer: 3√5 ≈ 6.71 mm

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Grade 10 • Unit 11: Distance Between Points and Lines

e.

Answer: √205 ≈ 14.32 in

2. Find the distance between the following pairs of points.

a. (−2, 3) and (−7, −7)
Answer: 𝑑 ≈ 11.18 units
b. (2, −9) and (−1, 4)
Answer: 𝑑 ≈ 13.34 units
c. (8, 5) and (−1, 3)
Answer: 𝑑 ≈ 9.22 units
d. (−10, −7) and (−8, 1)
Answer: 𝑑 ≈ 8.25 units
e. (−6, −10) and (−2, −10)
Answer: 𝑑 = 4 units
f. (0, −2) and (−5, −1)
Answer: 𝑑 ≈ 5.1 units
g. (6, 4) and (−5, −1)
Answer: 𝑑 ≈ 12.08 units
h. (3, 8) and (9, 10)
Answer: 𝑑 ≈ 6.32 units
i. (10, 1) and (9, −4)
Answer: 𝑑 ≈ 5.1 units

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Grade 10 • Unit 11: Distance Between Points and Lines

j. (−8, 10) and (−6, 7)

Answer: 𝑑 ≈ 3.61 units

3. Solve the following problems completely.

a. Two bikers traveled 8 kilometers north and 5 kilometers west. What is the shortest
distance they must travel to return to their starting point?
Answer: The bikers should travel approximately 9.43 kilometers southeast of their
position to take the shortest distance back from their initial destination.

b. A slide in a water theme park measures 15 meters long and the ladder used to
climb the slide is 5 meters high. How far is the base of the ladder to the other end
of the slide?
Answer: The base of the ladder is approximately 14.14 meters away from the far
end of the slide.

c. Find the perimeter of a kite whose vertices are at points (−1, 2), (4, 2), (3, 4), and
(3, 0).
Answer: The perimeter of the kite is 13.42 units.