From the article - "shortest distance between a point and a line". Distance between a point and a line is the length of the line segment that joins the point a

From the article - "shortest distance between a point and a line". Distance between a point and a line is the length of the line segment that joins the point and the line, and is perpendicular to it. It's nonsense to speak of "shortest distance". It tends to imply that there are many distances between...one of them is shortest.