Maths > Three Dimensional Coordinate System > 3.0 Distance and Angle between lines and points.

  Three Dimensional Coordinate System
    1.0 Introduction
    2.0 Equation of a line in space
    3.0 Distance and Angle between lines and points.
    4.0 Plane
    5.0 Relation between Plane, Line and Point.
    6.0 Intersection of a line and a plane
    7.0 Image of a point in a plane

3.4 Shortest distance between two lines
By shortest distance between two lines, we mean the join of a point in one line with one point on the other lines so that the length of the segment so obtained is the smallest. In space we generally have three different types of lines:
1. Intersecting lines: If two lines in space intersect at a point, then they are called intersecting lines. The shortest distance between them is zero.

2. Parallel lines: If two lines in space are parallel to each other then the shortest distance between them is the perpendicular distance i.e., the length of perpendicular drawn from a point on one line onto the other line.

3. Skew Lines: Two straight lines in space which are neither parallel nor intersecting are called skew lines. Such pair of lines are non-coplanar i.e., which do not lie in the same plane.
For skew lines, the line of shortest distance will be perpendicular to both the lines.
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