This activity was developed by a student or students at Mainland High School which is located in Daytona Beach, FL.   It is still a "work in progress" with editing and improvements yet to come.

title.gif (5157 bytes)

1.gif (389 bytes) Plot and label each point on the coordinate system below: A(2, 3); B(4, 7); C(12, 8); D(10, 4). Connect A to B, B to C, C to D, and D to A to form a quadrilateral. What type of quadrilateral does this appear to be?

2.gif (484 bytes) Use the slope formula 

m = ( y2 - y1 ) /( x2 - x1 )

to find the slope of each segment.

lines.gif (668 bytes)
graph.gif (5665 bytes)

3.gif (499 bytes) Do the results confirm your answer to question 1? Explain why or why not.

4.gif (454 bytes) Plot and label each point on the following coordinate system: A(1, 3); B(4, 7); C(9, 7); D(6, 3). Connect the points in the same order as in the first drawing. What type of quadrilateral does this appear to be?

5.gif (494 bytes) Use the distance formula,

square root.gif (979 bytes),               

to find the length of each segment.

lines.gif (668 bytes)

 
graph.gif (5665 bytes)

6.gif (462 bytes) Do the results confirm your answer to question 4? Explain why or why not.

7.gif (444 bytes) Draw the diagonals ABCD. Use the slope formula to find the slope of each diagonal.

ACBD.gif (670 bytes)

8.gif (474 bytes) What do you think is true about the diagonals of this quadrilateral?

9.gif (478 bytes) On a seperate sheet of graph paper, plot and label each point: A (3, 2); B (2, 5); C (8, 7); D (9,4).  Draw the quadrilateral that is formed. Draw the diagonals. What type of quadrilateral does this appear to be?

10.gif (634 bytes) Use the slope and distance formulas to find information about the sides and diagonals of the quadrilateral created in number 9.

What can you now conclude about the type of quadrilateral that ABCD is?

 

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