Question

select the correct answer from each drop - down menu.
jamal is finding the length, d, of the line segment. his work so far is shown. what is jamals next step?
jamal should find the length of each leg by squaring the x - coordinates and y - coordinates adding the x - coordinates and y - coordinates subtracting the x - coordinates and y - coordinates

Explanation:

Step1: Recall the distance formula concept

To find the length of a line segment between two points \((x_1,y_1)\) and \((x_2,y_2)\) using the Pythagorean theorem (which the distance formula is derived from), we first need to find the horizontal and vertical distances (the legs of the right - triangle).
The horizontal distance is \(|x_2 - x_1|\) and the vertical distance is \(|y_2 - y_1|\).

Step2: Analyze the operations

• Squaring the \(x\) - coordinates and \(y\) - coordinates (\(x_1^2,x_2^2,y_1^2,y_2^2\)) is not the first step in finding the leg lengths.
• Adding the \(x\) - coordinates (\(x_1 + x_2\)) and \(y\) - coordinates (\(y_1 + y_2\)) does not give the leg lengths.
• Subtracting the \(x\) - coordinates (\(x_2 - x_1\)) gives the horizontal leg length (if we consider the absolute value for length) and subtracting the \(y\) - coordinates (\(y_2 - y_1\)) gives the vertical leg length (if we consider the absolute value for length).

Answer:

subtracting the \(x\) - coordinates and \(y\) - coordinates