It's easier to find the lengths of horizontal and vertical segments.
It's easier to find the distance of a segment if one of the segments endpoints is at the origin.
Example Solution:
Coordinates: (0,0), (0,p) and (p,0) Explanation: See solution.
Practice makes perfect
When we calculate the lengths of segments in a coordinate plane we should consider the following:
It's easier to find the lengths of horizontal and vertical segments.
It's easier to find the distance of a segment if one endpoint is at the origin.
Since this is a right triangle, it's possible to place it in the coordinate plane so that one leg runs run along the vertical axis and the other leg runs along the horizontal axis. We can do that by placing the right angle vertice at the origin like below.
