College Algebra CLEP Prep Practice Exam

The formula for the distance between two points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) is expressed as the square root of the sum of the squared difference between the x coordinates and the squared difference between the y coordinates. This is also known as the Pythagorean theorem in geometry. The other options either only consider the distance on one axis (A and B) or add the absolute values of the differences instead of squaring them (C). Therefore, they do not accurately calculate the distance between the two points. Option D is the correct formula for finding the distance between two points in a two-dimensional coordinate system.