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How to Find the Length When Given Two Endpoints

Finding the length between two endpoints is a common task that you might see in a middle school, high school or college math course. Endpoints define a part of a line, which is termed a "line segment." You can calculate the length between endpoints by following the distance formula. The distance formula involves mathematical calculations such as subtraction, square roots and addition. By plugging the information specific to your endpoints into the formula, you can determine the length of the segment.

Instructions

    • 1

      Write down the coordinates of the two endpoints. The x coordinate is listed first and then the y coordinate. For instance, you might have a point at (2, 3) and another at (6, 5).

    • 2

      Subtract the first x coordinate from the second x coordinate. In this example, you would subtract 2 from 6 to get 4.

    • 3

      Square your answer from Step 2. In this example, you would multiply 4 times 4 to get 16.

    • 4

      Subtract the first y coordinate from the second y coordinate. In this example, you would subtract 3 from 5 to get 2.

    • 5

      Square your answer from Step 4 and add it to your squared answer from Step 3. In this example, you would square 2 to get 4 and add 4 to 16 to get 20.

    • 6

      Take the square root of your answer from Step 5 to find the distance between the two points. In this instance, you would take the square root of 20 to get a distance of 4.472.

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