Distance from a point to a line the perpendicular "R". Draw the vertical line through "P" and label its intersection with the given line "S". At any point "T" on the line, draw a right triangle "TVU" whose sides are horizontal and vertical line segments with hypotenuse "TU" on the given line and horizontal side of length |"B"| (see diagram). The vertical side of ∆"TVU" will have length |"A"| since the line has slope -"A"/"B". ∆"PRS" and ∆"TVU" are similar triangles, since they are both right triangles and ∠"PSR" ≅ ∠"TUV" since they are corresponding angles of a transversal to the parallel lines "PS" and "UV" (both
Gauss's Pythagorean right triangle proposal according to his view a correspondence with the inhabitants of the moon could only be begun by means of such mathematical contemplations and ideas, which we and they have in common." Crowe concluded in sum that his review of earliest sources failed to confirm the detail of the proposal and Gauss as its author, but that his origination of the idea was not unlikely given the existing evidence. Gauss's Pythagorean right triangle proposal Gauss's Pythagorean right triangle proposal is an idea attributed to Carl Friedrich Gauss for a method to signal extraterrestrial beings by constructing an immense right triangle and