1Math.hypot

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To find the distance between two points we use pythagoras to get the square root of the sum of the square of the component of the vector between them.

var v1 = {x : 10, y :5};
var v2 = {x : 20, y : 10};
var x = v2.x - v1.x;
var y = v2.y - v1.y;
var distance = Math.sqrt(x * x + y * y); // 11.180339887498949

With ECMAScript 6 came Math.hypot which does the same thing

var v1 = {x : 10, y :5}; 
var v2 = {x : 20, y : 10}; 
var x = v2.x - v1.x; 
var y = v2.y - v1.y;
var distance = Math.hypot(x,y); // 11.180339887498949

Now you don’t have to hold the interim vars to stop the code becoming a mess of variables

var v1 = {x : 10, y :5};
var v2 = {x : 20, y : 10};
var distance = Math.hypot(v2.x - v1.x, v2.y - v1.y); // 11.180339887498949

Math.hypot can take any number of dimensions

// find distance in 3D
var v1 = {x : 10, y : 5, z : 7};
var v2 = {x : 20, y : 10, z : 16};
var dist = Math.hypot(v2.x - v1.x, v2.y - v1.y, v2.z - v1.z); // 14.352700094407325

// find length of 11th dimensional vector
var v = [1,3,2,6,1,7,3,7,5,3,1]; 
var i = 0;
dist = Math.hypot(v[i++],v[i++],v[i++],v[i++],v[i++],v[i++],v[i++],v[i++],v[i++],v[i++],v[i++]);

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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