Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to find the distance between two points in a coordinate system. XA means the x-coordinate of point A. If you connect two points that have the same y-coordinate the line will be a horizontal line.
Take the coordinates of two points you want to find the distance between.
Take the coordinates of two points you want to find the distance between. Since this format always works it can be turned into a formula. The distance is the same in either direction going from point 1 to point 2 or vice versa. To find the distance between two points x 1y 1 and x 2y 2 all that you need to do is use the coordinates of these ordered pairs and apply the formula pictured below.