Equidistant is an adjective that is used to describe what is equidistant . As for equidistance, said of two things or individuals with respect to another or other elements, it means being at the same distance .
Suppose that, from a city X , locality R is 500 kilometers away, the same amount as locality S. It can be said, therefore, that R and S are equidistant from X. To get to either of the two cities from X , you will have to travel 500 kilometers .
In the field of mathematics , the notion of distance is used to refer to the length of the segment of a line that joins two points in Euclidean space. This distance is expressed in numbers. When a certain point is at the same distance from two others, it is equidistant from both.
Between two points on a given line , this concept is also known as the midpoint , and is achieved by creating a vector that goes from the first in the direction of the second and then multiplying it by half the extension of the segment that joins them.
If we move to the realm of planes, we find different situations in which equidistant points appear:
* in the bisector of a segment, that is, the perpendicular line that we can draw at its midpoint, its points are equidistant from the ends of the segment ;
* any point on a given circle is equidistant from its center;
* every point on the bisector of an angle is equidistant from its sides;
* given two parallel lines, their equidistant points form a parallel line between them;
* in a parabola , its points are equidistant from the directrix and the focus.
If we take a triangle as a reference, the central point of its circumcircle (that which passes through its three vertices) is precisely the one that is equidistant from the other three.
While the applications of this concept may be difficult for a person outside of science to imagine, even in the realm of computer graphics it can be used to center objects in space: whether in a video game or animation, it occurs Many times we want to place a character or an object at a point equidistant from others.
The notion of equidistant can also be used in a symbolic sense. Let's take the case of a country where there are constant confrontations between people who are in favor of legal abortion and protesters who, on the other hand, seek to defend life from the beginning of pregnancy under any circumstance. The president of the nation, in this framework, chooses to place himself in a position equidistant between both positions: he does not express himself in favor of either nor does he condemn them.
A political leader, on the other hand, can develop an electoral proposal that, according to him, is equidistant from the right and the left. In this way, the candidate tries to captivate people who are not attracted to either extreme.
In this sense, a person with a posture equidistant from two extremes can be classified in different ways, depending on the observer. There are those who appreciate neutrality , since they consider that from a point halfway between two others it is possible to have a clearer and broader perspective of a given problem, and that this opens the doors to the development of better action plans to solve it. .
On the other hand, there are those who believe that being equidistant from two positions or ideas is the same as not committing to any of them, which reflects the fear of expressing one's own opinions . Needless to say, for these people it is not a positive concept, but rather a way of hindering the solution of a problem due to a lack of determination.