Most Students Can’t Do This: Distance Between Two Points ¦ GRE / GMAT Math

Comes up all the time in the GRE, GMAT and many other Quantitative tests.

So, how would you find the distance between the points (5,0) and (0,6)?

The key is to think of those points as part of a triangle, with a horizontal distance between them and a vertical distance between them.

Why would that be helpful?

Because then we can use Pythagoras to find the actual distance between the two points!

How do we find the horizontal distance?

Difference in x’s

How do we find the vertical distance?

Difference in y’s – ignore the minus as we simply care about the distance not whether it is up or down.

Then, pythagoras away!

Let’s try a more difficult set of coordinates.

(-2, 4) and (3, 16)

Finally, let’s use this trick on a wordy question:

Saurabh and Hassan start at the same location. Saurabh travels 5 miles east and then 5 miles north. Hassan travels 2 miles south and then 7 miles west. How many miles apart are Saurabh and Hassan now?

We can again use visualisation and the Pythagoras Theorem to find the length between two coordinates.

Hope this video helped you to find the straight-line distance on a coordinate plane, aka the distance between two points. Coordinate geometry GRE / GMAT can be fun!

Perfect GRE Math / GMAT Math complement to videos by Learn Math Tutorials, ExamSolutions, tecmath and Don't Memorise.

[irock]

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[MamunAbdullahCodes]

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[dardihava]

You are an amazing teacher! I could und quantum physics if it were to be explained by you. Pls never stop teaching! Many thanks for the free shared content.

[penmatsa]

Thanks a lot for such videos!! Not only are these such informative videos but also are such confidence boosters when solving along with you...
Truly you are a lifesaver!

[naveenkhan]

Great you pointed out the c-squared bit! Shows how much you care about your students. Also the opposite directions of the journey changing signs of the numbers was amazing.

[dualshock]

HI!
I just wanted to add that the distance between two points can also be calculated through a formula: whole thing under root[((x1-x2)^2)+((y1-y2)^2))], where (x1y1) and (x2, y2) are the two points
I always used this formula as a kid but after watching your video i realised its derived from the pythagoreas theorem!! 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

[madhurimachaudhuri]

Please post videos on tips and tricks of GRE verbal....

[charleneconstantino]

amazing how much i can learn in this video, and all your other videos considering they're short vids

[meenuravi]

Thank you! Can you also do a video on work/rate like the two machines working together? Great videos!

[thirumalreddy]

Really helpful!!! Expecting all the math gre topics from u🤗

[bilalansarkhan]

Seeing those direction-miles questions as coordinate questions really speeds up the process

[tosinghsatyam]

Give yourself a golden a star ( 1:26 )? That was way too generous of you Philip.

[megank]

I loved this video, much helpful. Thank you soo much 👌🏻👍🏻

[sanamunirkhan]

Thanks alot for such an awesome explanation. Cheers!

[soumendash]

hello, nice explanation. In the tried question you told should be careful about double negative but why we should b careful about that when we ignore the negative signs.

[LookUpp-]

wonderful wonderful video. Very clear instruction

[Illustrious-buy-]

Extremely helpful! Thanks a lot for this.

[edwardblack]

These videos are gold. Thank you so much!

[lennonation]

Great videos! It would be great if you could make a video on the various mock tests sources. Which ones are legit and which ones are close enough to real scores as you have been working in the industry and have tutored many kids and they also must've told you their experience. Thank you!

[RafiAhmedMangrio]

if i take seperate distance of both points and add them it gives me 14.35
for surabh 25+25=underroot 50
for hassan 49+4=underoot 53
underoot 50 + underroot 53 = 14.35 ??

Why this doesn't work