i have a dataset with x and y values. i want to randomly select a point on the x-axis between the smallest and largest x-value and use a y value of zero for them. Next, for each randomly selected point {x[i],0}i want to find the point in the {x,y} space which is closest to them. However, as seen below, the scale of y-values is not the same as the x-values, using normal distance would always end up in a value that is very close to zero, therefore generating always the same. how can i overcome this problem? My code is; #randomly select 100 values between 0 and 10000 y = runif(100,0,10000) x = 1:length(x) plot(x,y) #randomly sample 20 values of 'x' x.rand = sample(x, 20) y.rand = rep(0, length(x.rand)) points(x.rand, y.rand, col="blue") #find a point which has minimal distance between the {x,y} and the {x.rand,0} dist.indices = c() for(i in 1:length(x.rand)){ dist.values = ((x.rand[i]-y.rand[i])^2+(x-y)^2)^0.5 dist.indices = c(indices,which(dist.values == min(dist.values))) } This will always end up with one dist.indices that is very close to zero. Thanks in advance, Marten -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/find-distance-between-two-points-with-different-scale-tp26479956p26479956.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.