Cartesian Coordinate System - Distance and Intermediate Position Between Two Points

In the rectangular Cartesian coordinate system the coordinate axes are perpendicular to one another and the same unit length is chosen on the two axes.

The distance between two points in Cartesian x and y coordinate system can be calculated as

$$ d(P_1, P_2) = \sqrt{(x_2 - x_1)^2 + (y_2 - y_1)^2} \tag{1}$$

Example - Distance between two points

For point P₁ the coordinates are x₁ = 4, y₁ = 5, and for point P₂ the coordinates are x₂ = 7, y₂ = 9.

The distance between the points can be calculated as

$$ d(P_1, P_2) = \sqrt{(7 - 4)^2 + (9 - 5)^2} = \underline {5} $$

Intermediate position between two points

The intermediate position between two point in the cartesian coordinate system can be calculated as

$$ x ={ (r_1 x_1 + r_2 x_2) \over (r_1 + r_2 )} \tag{2}$$

$$ y = {(r_1 y_1 + r_2 y_2)  \over (r_1 + r_2 ) }\tag{3}$$

where

r₁ = ratio of the distance between P₁ to P - to the distance of P₁ to P₂

r₂ = ratio of the distance between P₂ to P - to the distance of P₁ to P₂

For the midpoint between P₁ and P₂:

$$ r_1 = r_2 = 1 \tag{4}$$

- and eq. 2 and 3 can be expressed as

$$ x ={ (x_1 + x_2) \over 2} \tag{2a}$$

$$ y = {(y_1 + y_2)  \over 2}\tag{3a}$$

Example - Midpoint on Line

The midpoint on the line in the example above can be calculated as

$$ x ={ (4 + 7) \over 2 } = \underline {5.5} $$

$$ y = {(5 + 9)  \over 2 } = \underline {7} $$

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