Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / ia / Paper 1 / 5B / ii

The plane through $a_i$ has the constant normal coordinate $r\cdot \hat{n}=a_i\cdot \hat{n}$. Since $\hat{n}$ is a unit vector, the separation of these normal coordinates is a length. Every displacement joining the planes has this fixed normal component, so its length is at least its absolute value; a displacement parallel to $\hat{n}$ attains that bound. Hence the distance between parallel planes isThe absolute value, present in the PDF, is necessary because distance is nonnegative.