Sign in Elementary Analytical Geometry

Extract

The question of sign constitutes a real difficulty to the intelligent boy at the outset of his study of Coordinate Geometry. At the beginning of his Trigonometry he is told OP must be considered always positive, but later on he will find some authorities giving a point in the third quadrant as ( - r, θ), while others prefer (r, θ + π). The perpendicular distance of (h, k) from ax + by + c = 0 is given by ± (ah + bk +c)/(a² + b²)^½, and sign seems to matter, but usually the pupil is told that he only wants to know how far off (h, k) is, and he is advised to stick to the absolute value. But a little later on he wants the equations of the bisectors of the angles between two given lines, and then he is blamed for not remembering that signs matter a good deal.