Students of a school are standing in rows and columns in their playground for a drill practice. A, B, C and D are the positions of four students as shown in figure. Is it possible to place Jaspal in the drill in such a way that he is equidistant from each of the four students A, B, C and D? If so, what should be his position?
By observing the positions of the students as given in the figure we can say that, A, B, C and D are forming a quadrilateral. So the vertices of this quadrilateral will be A (3, 5), B (7, 9), C (11, 5) and D (7, 1).
Now,
To find out the type of this quadrilateral we have to find all its sides;
By distance formula;
D =
So,
AB =
AB =
AB
BC =
CD =
And DA =
We see that, AB = BC = CD = DA i.e., all sides are equal.
Now, we find length of both diagonals;
AC =
= 8
And BD =
= 8
Here, AC = BD
Since AB = BC = CD = DA and AC = BD
So we can say that ABCD is a square. As we also know that diagonals of a square bisect each other. So, P be position of Jaspal in which he is equidistant from each of the four students A, B, C and D
Calculate the coordinates of point P;
Coordinates of P = Mid - point of AC
= = (7, 5)
Since, mid - point of a line segment having points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) is
Hence, the required position of Jaspal is (7, 5).