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#1 2006-10-27 06:30:26

Neha
Member
Registered: 2006-10-11
Posts: 173

Point

construct a line through Point A that is perpendicular to Line Segment XY.

                              * A




___|_________________________|________
     X                                           Y                                               
     


dunnodunnodunno


                             
                              |* A
                              |
                              |
                              |
                              |
___|_____________ |____________|________
     X                       |                    Y                                               
                              |
                              |
                              |
                              |
                             


LIKE THIS ?? ? ?? ? ? /:/


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#2 2006-10-27 06:48:41

Toast
Real Member
Registered: 2006-10-08
Posts: 1,321

Re: Point

Yep that's correct! big_smile

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#3 2006-10-27 06:49:44

Neha
Member
Registered: 2006-10-11
Posts: 173

Re: Point

awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee man totally awesome


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#4 2006-10-27 08:05:41

Ricky
Moderator
Registered: 2005-12-04
Posts: 3,791

Re: Point

Now find the distance from A to the line faint


"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."

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#5 2006-10-27 08:19:35

Neha
Member
Registered: 2006-10-11
Posts: 173

Re: Point

distance oh god
ok they just said construct a line...they didnt say distance ???/


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#6 2006-10-29 11:45:19

mathsyperson
Moderator
Registered: 2005-06-22
Posts: 4,900

Re: Point

While you're right, you're probably expected to show how you would do that using only a compass and straight edge, rather than just drawing it.

You'd need to first draw an arc of a circle with centre A, the right size so that it crosses XY twice.

You then have two points that are intersections of your arc and XY. You then draw an arc from one of those points, and another arc from the other point, making sure your compass stays the same length and that those two arcs cross over twice. Joining up those two crossing points should make a line that also goes through A, and that is the line that you wanted to construct.

And if you can follow that then I'm very impressed because it's hard to describe without a diagram.

About Ricky's side-question, it's impossible to find a length because you don't have a ruler or any given measurements as a reference, so you have no idea what the scale of the thing is. The best you could do would be to find it as a ratio of XY.


Why did the vector cross the road?
It wanted to be normal.

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