distance (redirected from distances)

distance

1. Geometry

a. the length of the shortest line segment joining two points

b. the length along a straight line or curve

2. Horse racing

a. Brit a point on a racecourse 240 yards from the winning post

b. Brit any interval of more than 20 lengths between any two finishers in a race

c. US the part of a racecourse that a horse must reach in any heat before the winner passes the finishing line in order to qualify for later heats

3. go the distance Boxing to complete a bout without being knocked out

4. the distant parts of a picture, such as a landscape

5. middle distance

a. (in a picture) halfway between the foreground and the horizon

b. (in a natural situation) halfway between the observer and the horizon

6. Athletics relating to or denoting the longer races, usually those longer than a mile

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distance [′dis·təns]

(mathematics)

A nonnegative number associated with pairs of geometric objects.

The spatial separation of two points, measured by the length of a hypothetical line joining them.

For two parallel lines, two skew lines, or two parallel planes, the length of a line joining the two objects and perpendicular to both.

For a point and a line or plane, the length of the perpendicular from the point to the line or plane.

(mechanics)

The spatial separation of two points, measured by the length of a hypothetical line joining them.