distance

(noun)

The amount of space between two points, measured along a straight line

Related Terms

Examples of distance in the following topics:

  • The Distance Between Two Lines

  • Equivalence of distances: Maxsim

    • The algorithm begins with a (reciprocal of) distance or strength of tie matrix.
    • The distances of each actor re-organized into a sorted list from low to high, and the Euclidean distance is used to calculate the dissimilarity between the distance profiles of each pair of actors.
    • Again, the focus is on whether actor u has a similar set of distances, regardless of which distances, to actor v.
    • The first step is to convert the adjacency matrix into a geodesic distance matrix.
    • Automorphic equivalence of geodesic distances in the line network.

  • Distance Learning and Teaching Online

    • Distance learning can expand access to education and training for both general populace and businesses.
    • Distance learning provides access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time and distance, or both.
    • In the US, the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) specialize in the accreditation of distance education institutions.
    • At the same time, distance learning can be a cost-effective approach to education.
    • Some say a negative to distance education is the lack of social interaction.

  • The Distance Formula and Midpoints of Segments

    • The distance and the midpoint formulas give us the tools to find important information about two points.
    • In analytic geometry, the distance between two points of the $xy$-plane can be found using the distance formula.  
    • The distance can be from two points on a line or from two points on a line segment.  
    • The distance between points $(x_{1},y_{1})$ and $(x_{2},y_{2})$ is given by the formula:
    • Calculate the midpoint of a line segment and the distance between two points on a plane

  • Categorical REGE for geodesic distances (Padgett's marriage data)

    • The categorical REGE algorithm (Network>Roles & Positions>Maximal Regular>CATREGE) can be used to identify regularly equivalent actors by treating the elements of the geodesic distance matrix as describing "types" of ties -- that is different geodesic distances are treated as "qualitatively" rather than "quantitatively" different.
    • Since the data are highly connected and geodesic distances are short, we are not able to discriminate highly distinctive regular classes in these data.
    • The use of REGE with undirected data, even substituting geodesic distances for binary values, can produce rather unexpected results.
    • If geodesic distances can be used to represent differences in the types of ties (and this is a conceptual question), and if the actors do have some variability in their distances, this method can produce meaningful results.
    • Categorical multi-value analysis (geodesic distance) of Padgett marriage alliances

  • Absolute Value

    • Absolute value can be thought of as the distance of a real number from zero.
    • It refers to the distance of $a$ from zero.
    • For example, the absolute value of 5 is 5, and the absolute value of −5 is also 5, because both numbers are the same distance from 0.
    • When applied to the difference between real numbers, the absolute value represents the distance between the numbers on a number line.
    • Absolute value is closely related to the mathematical and physical concepts of magnitude, distance, and norm.

  • Introduction to Circles

    • The equation for a circle is just an extension of the distance formula.
    • This definition is what gives us the concept of the radius of a circle, which is exactly that certain distance.
    • According to the distance formula, the distance c from the point (a,b) to any other point (x, y) is
    • Remember that the distance between the center (a,b) and any point (x,y) on the circle is that fixed distance, which is called the radius.
    • Notice that all we have done is slightly rearrange the distance formula equation.

  • Eccentricity

    • The orange lines denote the distance between the focus and points on the conic section, as well as the distance between the same points and the directrix.
    • These are the distances used to find the eccentricity.
    • In other words, the distance between a point on a conic section and its focus is less than the distance between that point and the nearest directrix.
    • This indicates that the distance between a point on a conic section the nearest directrix is less than the distance between that point and the focus.
    • Examples of these distances are shown.

  • Geodesic distance, eccentricity, and diameter

    • This quantity is the geodesic distance.
    • The geodesic distance is widely used in network analysis.
    • Here is the dialog box for Network>Cohesion>Distance.
    • There are a number of ways that this may be done.The multiplicative nearness transformation divides the distance by the largest possible distance between two actors.
    • The standard approach in such cases is to treat the geodesic distance between unconnected actors as a length greater than that of any real distance in the data.

  • Distance

    • If A tells B, and B tells C (and A does not tell C), then actors A and C are at a distance of two.
    • Sometimes we are also interested in how many ways there are to connect between two actors, at a given distance.
    • The distances among actors in a network may be an important macro-characteristic of the network as a whole.
    • Where distances are great, it may take a long time for information to diffuse across a population.
    • We will have a good deal more to say about this aspect of variability in actor distances in the next chapter.