Question

What methods could you use to calculate the x-coordinate of the midpoint of a horizontal segment with the endpoints of (-20, 0) and (20, 0)?. . A. divide 0 by 20 . B. calculate the average of the x-coordinates . C. divide 20 by 2 . D. divide 2 by 20 . E. take the average of the endpoints .

Answer 1

The coordinates (abscissa and ordinates) of the midpoint of the line segment is the average of the abscissas and the ordinates, respectively. Therefore, the x - coordinate of the midpoint is equal to -20 + 20 or 0 by 2 which is zero. The answer is letter E. 

Answer 2

Answer:

Option B is correct .

Step-by-step explanation:

Consider the line segment joining points $A\left ( x_1,y_1 \right )\,,\,B\left ( x_2,y_2 \right )$ . It's midpoint is given by $\left ( \frac{x_1+x_2}{2},\frac{y_1+y_2}{2} \right )$ .

Midpoint is basically the centre point of a line segment .

Here, given points are $\left ( -20,0 \right )\,,\,\left ( 20,0 \right )$ .

Consider the following:

$\left ( x_1,y_1 \right )=\left ( -20,0 \right )\\\left ( x_2,y_2 \right )=\left ( 20,0 \right )$

To find: x-coordinate of the midpoint of a horizontal segment with the endpoints $(-20,0) , (20,0)$ .

Solution:

x-coordinate = $\frac{x_1+x_2}{2}$

On putting $x_1=-20\,,\,x_2=20$ , we get

x - coordinate = $\frac{-20+20}{2}=0$

So, here we calculate the average of x-coordinates .

Option B is correct .