Big Ideas Math Integrated I, 2016
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Big Ideas Math Integrated I, 2016 View details
3. Postulates and Diagrams
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Exercise 21 Page 463

How do you identify congruent segments with hatch-marks?

See solution.

Practice makes perfect

A midpoint divides a segment in two congruent halves. To show this we typically use hatch-marks, where the number of marks identifies which segments are congruent. We see two examples of this below.

Let's look at the given diagram.

Visually, it looks like DM≅ MB and AM≅MC. However, mathematically, this is not what the diagram tells us. Interpreting the diagram, we see that DM≅MC and AM≅MB.

Therefore, point M does not cut the two segments in two congruent halves, which means it cannot be the midpoint.