Question

Find the coordinates of a poit on x-axis which is nearest to the point (-5,-8)

Answer 1

(-5,0)is the nearest point on x axis

Answer 2

This is the plot of (-5,-8). If you observe clearly, the shortest distance between the point (-5,-8) and X-axis must be perpendicular to X-axis.


This implies that the line joining (-5,-8) and the point of X-axis is parallel to the Y-axis. Therefore the x-coordinate of the point is -5.

Since the point is on X-axis, y-coordinate=0.

Thus the point is (-5,0).