# Finding the equation of a parabola - where is the right triangle for the distance formula here?

So I was watching a video on Khan academy that explains how to find the equation of a parabola, given we have a focus and a directrix.

He draws a picture like this, the focus is at $(a, b)$ and we pick a random point on the parabola at $(x, y)$, the directrix is at $y = k$

The instructor indicates that we want to use the distance formula to help us with that.

What I don't understand, how can we apply the distance formula here? Where is the right triangle in that picture he drew?

• The two line segment shall have equal length. And to compute length you need the said formula – user122049 Dec 22 '17 at 9:06
• @user122049 ok, so the pink line segment and the thicker, blue line segment have the same length, ok I understand that. But I don't get on which line segments he applies the formula. – Max Dec 22 '17 at 9:09
• He applies them to those segments! Blue - distance between the points with coordinates $(x,y)$ and $(x,k)$. Pink - distance between the points with coordinates $(x,y)$ and $(a,b)$. This is the definition of a parabola: the set of all points with equal distances between a point and a line. – Nicky Hekster Dec 22 '17 at 9:14

You don't need to draw a right triangle to use the distance formula. But if you did draw one, the one being measured has the line segment $(x,y)$ to $(a,b)$ as its hypotenuse. The right angle would be at $(a,y)$ (Draw a vertical line through $(a,b)$, a horizontal line through $(x,y)$, and mark the intersection).
The expression on the left is the distance from the point $(x,y)$ to $(x,k)$. There's no right triangle to draw there, because one of its legs would have zero length.