Normal Form
The normal form(named after German mathematician Ludwig Otto Hesse) of equation of a straight line is as follows: where is the length of the perpendicular drawn from the origin onto the line and is the angle the normal makes with positive x-axis.
In the applet shown below OC is the perpendicular.So .You can drag points A and B on the line to different positions to change p and .
Something to ponder!!
Why was Hesse bent upon describing the equation in terms of the normal ? Put another way, why should we try to know and ?
What is the idea in forcing the equation to be in normal form?