McGraw Hill Glencoe Geometry, 2012
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McGraw Hill Glencoe Geometry, 2012 View details
2. Medians and Altitudes of Triangles
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Exercise 12 Page 340

Draw the medians of â–³ XYZ and find their point of intersection.

(9,2)

Practice makes perfect

Let's start by plotting the given points on a coordinate plane and drawing â–³ XYZ.

We are asked to find the coordinates of the centroid of â–³ XYZ. This is the point of concurrency for the triangle's medians. A median of a triangle is a segment with one endpoint being a vertex and the other endpoint being the midpoint of the opposite side. cc Vertex & Opposite Side [0.8em] Z & XY X & YZ Y & XZWe will find the medians of â–³ XYZ and then we can find their point of concurrency.

Median of XY

First, let's find the midpoint of XY by substituting the coordinates of X and Y into the Midpoint Formula.

(x_1+x_2/2,y_1+y_2/2)
â–¼
Substitute coordinates and evaluate
(5+ 9/2,7+( - 3)/2)
(5+9/2,7-3/2)
(14/2,4/2)
(7,2)

Now that we know the coordinates of the midpoint of XY, we can plot this point on our diagram. Let's name this point N. Drawing a segment from Z to N, we will get the median of XY.

Median of YZ

Using the same process, we can find the midpoint of YZ. This time we will substitute the coordinates of Y and Z into the Midpoint Formula.

(x_1+x_2/2,y_1+y_2/2)
â–¼
Substitute coordinates and evaluate
(9+ 13/2,- 3+ 2/2)
(22/2,- 1/2)
(11,- 0.5)

Now, let's plot the midpoint of YZ at (5,3.5) and name it K. If we draw a segment from K to vertex X, we will have the median of YZ.

Median of XZ

One last time, we will follow the same procedure — this time using the coordinates of X and Z.

(x_1+x_2/2,y_1+y_2/2)
â–¼
Substitute coordinates and evaluate
(5+ 13/2,7+ 2/2)
(18/2,9/2)
(9,4.5)

Let's name this midpoint L and add it to the diagram. The segment that connects X and Z is a median of XZ.

Coordinates of the Midpoint

As we can see on our diagram, the medians intersect at point (9,2). These are the coordinates of the centroid of â–³ XYZ.