The product of the perpendicular distances from $(2,-1)$ to the pair of lines $2 x^2-5 x y+2 y^2=0$ is

The product of the perpendicular distances from $(2,-1)$ to the pair of lines $2 x^2-5 x y+2 y^2=0$ is
  1. $\frac{9}{\sqrt{5}}$ units
  2. $\frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}$ units
  3. 4 units
  4. 9 units

Solution

$\begin{aligned} & 2 x^2-5 x y+2 y^2=0 \\ & \therefore 2 x^2-4 x y-x y+2 y^2=0 \Rightarrow 2 x(x-2 y)-y(x-2 y)=0 \\ & \therefore(2 x-y)(x-2 y)=0 \end{aligned}$ Thus lines are $2 x-y=0$ and $x-2 y=0$ Distance of point $(2,-1)$ from these two lines are respectively $\left|\frac{(2)(2)+(-1)(1)}{\sqrt{4+1}}\right|$ and $\left|\frac{(1)(2)+(-1)(-2)}{\sqrt{1+4}}\right|$ i.e. $\frac{5}{\sqrt{5}}$ and $\frac{4}{\sqrt{5}}$ Hence required answer is $\frac{5}{\sqrt{5}} \times \frac{4}{\sqrt{5}}=4$

Asked in: MHT CET 2021 (21 Sep Shift 1)

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