Thread: General question about vectors. (point to plane)

Ok, this is more a general question...There's a picture if that helps for me to explain my question .

1/ Find the perpendicular distance of the point P(4, 5, 6) and the
plane x + 2y - 2z = 0.

This is the example in my text book. So i was reading through how the derive the formula


Now what i don't understand with this...n is the same vector as PM...
So the modulus of n should be the distance of PM. But then if thats the case, the formula doesn't make sense because it would be saying

and we need to know |x| to work out |x|...therefore the formula is pointless...
I know this mustn't be the case and its just me not understanding.

Any help please ?
Thanks

I think that you have not really understood the proof.
The usual formula for that distance is, using your diagram, .
But in that the is the normal to the plane.
That formula is derived by using the cosine of the angle between .
The distance is the length of one side of a right triangle with hypotenuse .

Originally Posted by Plato

I think that you have not really understood the proof.
The usual formula for that distance is, using your diagram, .
But in that the is the normal to the plane.
That formula is derived by using the cosine of the angle between .
The distance is the length of one side of a right triangle with hypotenuse .

Hi, thanks for the reply. Much appreciated