Distanta

Distanta is the Romanian word for distance. In geometry and everyday language, distanta refers to the amount of space between two points or objects. It is typically treated as a scalar quantity, representing the length of a path between points, whereas displacement describes both magnitude and direction from a starting point to an end point.

Several notions of distance are used in mathematics and applied fields. Euclidean distance is the straight-line length in flat space; Manhattan distance sums the absolute differences of coordinates. Geodesic distance is the shortest path along a curved surface, such as the surface of the Earth; great-circle distance is the shortest route on a sphere's surface.

Distances are measured in units such as meters and kilometers in the metric system, or miles and feet in the imperial system. Measurement tools include rulers, tape measures, odometers, rangefinders, and GPS devices. In physics and everyday life, distance relates to speed and time via distance = speed × time (when speed is constant).

In geography, cartography and computer science, distance underpins routing, clustering, proximity analysis, and spatial modeling. The concept is distinguished from proximity, which indicates nearness rather than the exact length of separation.