What’s the answer

Question

A line segment in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane has endpoints (12,4 ) and (-8,-2) what is the x coordinate of the midpoint of this segment?

Answer 1

Midpoint formula: m = ((x₁ + x₂)/2 , (y₁ + y₂)/2 )

Using the given coordinates, lets fill this formula in:

m = ( (12 + (-8)) / 2 , (4 + (-2) / 2)

m = ( 4/2 , 2/2)

m = (2,1)

Which part of (2,1) is the x coordinate?

x = 2

Answer 2

Hi Kamel!

This is very similar to the other midpoint problem -- since we know the two X coordinate values, we simply have to split the difference...

(X_m) = (X₁+X₂)/2 -- in this case, X_m = (12 + -8)/2, or 4/2 = 2

So the X coordinate for the midpoint would be 2.