median
don steward
mathematics teaching 10 ~ 16

Friday 13 April 2012

coordinate geometry proof

establish that the quadrilateral formed by joining the mid-points of the sides of the quadrilateral ABCD is a parallelogram

is there anything else about the resulting shape that is special?


















establish that a parallelogram is always formed for any quadrilateral with corners at

A(0, 0) ,   B(2m , 2n) ,     C(2p , 2q)    and    D(2r , 2s)

by joining the midpoints of the sides

(a version of Varignon's theorem, if you accept that these coordinate pairs are used without any loss of generality)

as a result of doing this procedure how can you obtain:
  • a rhombus?
  • a square?
  • a rectangle?

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