Manhattan distance is a way to measure the distance between two points in a grid-like path, similar to how one would navigate the streets of Manhattan. It calculates the total number of horizontal and vertical steps needed to travel from one point to another, ignoring any diagonal movement. This distance is often used in various fields, including computer science and mathematics, to solve problems related to geometry and pathfinding. The formula for calculating Manhattan distance between two points, (x1, y1) and (x2, y2), is |x1 - x2| + |y1 - y2|, where | | denotes the absolute value.