Find the point on the given line that is closest to the given point.
[list=1] [*]Find the line perpendicular to the given line that passes through the given point. [*]Identify the slope of the given line. [*]Find the opposite reciprocal of the slope of the given line. [*]Substitute the opposite reciprocal for [math]m[/math] in the point-slope form of a linear equation. [*]Substitute [math]x[/math] and [math]y[/math] from the given point into the equation for [math]x_{1}[/math] and [math]y_{1}[/math]. [*]Simplify the equation. [*]Find the intersection between the two lines by setting the given equation equal to the equation of the perpendicular line, then solve for [math]x[/math]. [*]Substitute the value of [math]x[/math] back into the given equation to find the value of [math]y[/math]. [*]Calculate the distance between the two points using the distance formula. [/list] This applet is provided by Walch Education as supplemental material for the [i]UCSS Secondary Math I[/i] program. Visit [url="http://www.walch.com"]www.walch.com[/url] for more information on our resources.