A company had sales of $19,814 million in 1999 and $28,858 million in 2007. Use the Midpoint Formula to estimate the sales in 2003. Assume that the sales followed a linear pattern.

Answer 1

The midpoint formula is basically this: Average the two x-values and that is the x-vale of the midpoint. Then average the two y-values and that is the y-value of the midpoint.

We can consider the year to be the "x" so average 1999 and 2007 by adding them and dividing by 2 and you get 2003 (which is good because that's the year you want.

We can consider the sales to be the "y" so average $19,814 million and $28,858 million by adding them and dividing by 2 and you get $24,336 million.

Note that in most books you'll see the midpoint formula listed like this:

For 2 points (x₁, y₁) and (x₂, y₂) the midpoint of the segment between them is the point (x_m, y_m) where:

and