9514 1404 393
Answer:
yes
Step-by-step explanation:
Yes, you can find the distance between two lines using the formula for the distance to a line.
In general, the notion of distance between two lines only make sense when the lines are parallel.
The usual formula for the distance between a point (x, y) and the line ...
ax +by +c = 0
is ...
d = |ax +by +c|/√(a^2 +b^2)
Two lines that are parallel will differ only in their values of 'c'. That is, if the two lines are ...
- ax +by +c1 = 0
- ax +by +c2 = 0
we can arrive at the formula by considering a point (x, y) such that it satisfies the equation for line 2: ax +by +c2 = 0. The distance of that point from line 1 will be ...
d = |ax +by +c1|/√(a^2 +b^2)
Since we can add or subtract 0 from anything without changing its value, we choose to subtract 0 from the numerator:
d = |(ax +by +c1) -(ax +by +c2)|/√(a^2 +b^2)
Simplifying gives ...
d = |c1 -c2|/√(a^2 +b^2)
