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
Pappus's area theorem rather than only for right angled ones and secondly it uses parallelograms rather than squares. For squares on two sides of an arbitrary triangle it yields a parallelogram of equal area over the third side and if the two sides are the legs of a right angle the parallelogram over the third side will be square as well. For a right-angled triangle, two parallelograms attached to the legs of the right angle yield a rectangle of equal area on the third side and again if the two parallelograms are squares then the rectangle on the third side will be a