Coordinate Geometry

Introduction: This unit investigates the properties of geometric figures on the coordinate plane.
Students develop and use the formulas for the distance between two points, the distance between a
point and a line, and the midpoint of segments. In addition, many topics that were addressed in
previous units will be revisited relative to the coordinate plane. Focusing students’ attention on a
coordinate grid as a reference for locations and descriptions of geometric figures strengthen their
recognitions of algebraic and geometric

Enduring Understandings:

• Algebraic formulas can be used to find measures of distance on the coordinate plane.

• The coordinate plane allows precise communication about graphical representations.

• The coordinate plane permits use of algebraic methods to obtain geometric results.

Key Standards Addressed:

Students will investigate properties of geometric figures in the coordinate plane.

a. Determine the distance between two points.

b. Determine the distance between a point and a line.

c. Determine the midpoint of a segment.

d. Understand the distance formula as an application of the Pythagorean Theorem.

e. Use the coordinate plane to investigate properties of and verify conjectures related to triangles and
quadrilaterals.

Related Standards Addressed:

Students will understand and use the language of mathematical argument and justification.

a. Use conjecture, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, counterexample, and indirect proof as
appropriate.

b. Understand and use the relationships among a statement and its converse, inverse, and
contrapositive.

Students will discover, prove, and apply properties of triangles, quadrilaterals, and other polygons.

a. Understand, use, and prove properties of and relationships among special quadrilaterals:
parallelogram, rectangle, rhombus, square, trapezoid, and kite.

b. Find and use points of concurrency in triangles: incenter, orthocenter, circumcenter, and centroid.

Students will reason and evaluate mathematical arguments.

a. Recognize reasoning and proof as fundamental aspects of mathematics.

b. Make and investigate mathematical conjectures.

c. Develop and evaluate mathematical arguments and proofs.

d. Select and use various types of reasoning and methods of proof.

Students will communicate mathematically.

a. Organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking through communication.

b. Communicate their mathematical thinking coherently and clearly to peers, teachers, and others.

c. Analyze and evaluate the mathematical thinking and strategies of others.

d. Use the language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas precisely.

Students will make connections among mathematical ideas and to other disciplines.

a. Recognize and use connections among mathematical ideas.

b. Understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent
whole.

c. Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics.

5. Students will represent mathematics in multiple ways.

a. Create and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas.

b. Select, apply, and translate among mathematical representations to solve problems.

c. Use representations to model and interpret physical, social, and mathematical phenomena
Tasks: The following are tasks that develop the concepts, skills, and problem solving necessary for
mastery of the standards in this unit:

Video Game Learning Task 1

John and Mary are fond of playing retro style video games on hand held game machines. They are
currently playing a game on a device that has a screen that is 2 inches high and four inches wide. At the
start, John's token starts ½ inch from the left edge and half way between the top and bottom of the
screen. Mary's token starts out at the extreme top of the screen and exactly at the midpoint of the top
edge.

Starting Position

As the game starts, John's token moves directly to the right at a speed of 1 inch per second.

For example, John’s piece moves 0.1inches in 0.1 seconds, 2 inches in 2 seconds, etc.

Mary's token moves directly downward at a speed of 0.8 inches per second.

After One Second

Let time be denoted in this manner: t = 1 means the positions of the tiles after one second

1. Draw a picture showing the positions of both tokens at times t = ¼, t = ½, t = 1, and

other times of your choice.

2. Discuss the movements possible for John’s token.

3. Discuss the movements possible for Mary’s token.

4. Discuss the movements of both tokens relative to each other.

5. If Mary's token gets closer than ¼ inch to John’s token, then Mary's token will destroy John’s, and
Mary will get 10,000 points. However, if John presses button A when the tokens are less than ½ inch
apart and more than ¼ inch apart, then John’s token destroys Mary's, and John gets 10,000 points. At
what critical time should John press the button?

6. Show the configuration of the tokens at your critical time. Label your points carefully. Is more than
one configuration possible?

7. Drawing pictures gives an estimate of the critical time, but inside the video game, everything is done
with numbers. What mathematical computations are needed in order for this video game to work?

8. Inside the computer game, the distances and positions are computed using coordinates. Place your
starting picture on a coordinate grid with the four corners of your game screen at: (0, 0), (0, 4), (2, 0),
and (2, 4). Repeat questions 5 through 7 using your coordinate grid. Did this make the game easier to
follow?

To help us think about the distance between the tokens in our video game, it may help us to look first at
a one-dimensional situation. Let’s look at how you determine distance between two locations on a
number line:

9. What is the distance between 5 and 7? 7 and 5? -1 and 6? 5 and -3?

10. Can you find a formula for the distance between two points, a and b, on a number line?

Now that we remember how to find the distance on a number line, let’s look at distance on

the coordinate plane:

11. Plot the points A= (0, 0), B = (3, 0) and C = (3, 4) on centimeter graph paper.

12. Find the distance from the point (0, 0) to the point (3, 4) using a centimeter ruler.

13. Consider the triangle ABC, what kind of triangle is formed? Find the lengths of the two shorter sides.
Find the length of the hypotenuse. Is this consistent with your prior measurements? Why or why not?

14. Using the same graph paper, find the distance between:

a. (1, 0) and (4, 4)

b. (0, 2) and (3, 6)

c. (-1, 2) and (2, 6)

d. (a, b) and (c, d)

15. Using your solution from 14 (d), find the distance between the point (-5, 1) and (7,6).

16. Using your solution from 14 (d), find the distance between the point (x1 , y1 ) and the point (x2 , y2).
Solutions written in this generic form are often called formulas.

17. Do you think your formula from 16 would work for any pair of points? Why?

Let’s revisit the video game. Draw a diagram of the game on a coordinate grid placing the
bottom left corner at the origin.

18. Place John and Mary’s tokens at the starting positions.

19. Write an ordered pair for John’s token and an ordered pair for Mary’s token when t = 1, when t = 1
½, and when t = 2.

20. Find the distance between their tokens when t = 1, when t = 1 ½, and when t = 2.

21. Write an ordered pair for John and Mary’s tokens at any time t.

22. Write an equation for the distance between John and Mary’s tokens at any time t.

23. Using the rules of the game, at what value(s) of t should John press the button?

Now we will look at this game in another way. Instead of focusing on John and Mary’s position in the
game, we will focus on the time and the distance the tokens are apart at that time. The ordered pairs
will be (time, distance apart).

24. List the three ordered pairs formed for t = 1, t = 1 ½, and t = 2.

25. Write a general form of this ordered pair using the equation you got in number 21.

26. Using a graphing utility, graph the equation y = the equation you got in number 21.

27. What does the graph look like? What are the characteristics of this graph?

28. How does the ordered pair for the minimum point on the graph compare with the answer you got in
number 22? Why do you think this is the case?

Learning Task 2.

Emily works at a building located on the corner of 61st Street and 9th Avenue in New York City. Her
brother, Gregory, is in town on business. He is staying at a hotel at the corner of 9th Avenue and 43rd
Street. The streets of New York City were laid out in a rectangular pattern. In this part of town,

Avenues run in a North-South direction and they are numbered from east to west, in other

words the further east you go, the lower the number. That means the Avenues east of 9 th Ave are 8th
Ave, 7 th Ave, etc. Streets run in an east-west direction. They increase in number as you proceed north.
So, north of 41 st Street is 42 nd Street, then 43rd Street, etc.

The distance between the avenues is the same as the distance between the streets. All the blocks are
approximately the same size.

1. Gregory called Emily at work, and they agree to meet for lunch. They agree to meet at a corner half
way between Emily’s work and Gregory’s hotel. Where should they meet? Justify your answer using a
diagram.

2. After lunch, Emily has the afternoon off and wants to show her brother her apartment. Her apartment
is three blocks north and four blocks west of the restaurant. At what intersection is her apartment
building located.
3. Gregory walks back to his hotel for an afternoon business meeting. He and Emily are going to meet for
dinner. They decide to be fair and will meet half way. How far is it from Emily’s apartment to Gregory’s
hotel? Where should they meet for dinner? How far are they going to walk to meet? Is their walking

distance ½ the distance from Emily’s apartment and Gregory’s hotel? Why or why not? On appropriate
graph paper, plot the points A = (0, 0), B = (6, 0), and C = (4, 12).

4. Find the point midway between A and B. This point is called the midpoint of the segment AB. Find the
distance from A to midpoint and the distance from midpoint to B. What do you notice?

5. Find the midpoint of segment BC. Check using distances.

6. Find the midpoint of a segment whose endpoints are (x1 , y1 ) and (x2 , y2 ).

Would this formula work for any endpoints? Why or why not?

Quadrilaterals Revisited Learning Task 3.

Plot points A = (1, 2), B = (2, 5), C = (4, 3) and D = (5, 6).

1. What specialized geometric figure is quadrilateral ABCD? Support your answer mathematically.

2. Draw the diagonals of ABCD. Find the coordinates of the midpoint of each diagonal. What do you
notice?

3. Find the lengths of the diagonals of ABCD. What do you notice?

4. Find the slopes of the diagonals of ABCD. What do you notice?

5. The diagonals of ABCD create four small triangles. Are any of these triangles

congruent to any of the others? Why or why not?

Plot points A = (-3, -1), B = (-1, 2), C = (4, 2), and D = (2, -1).

6. What specialized geometric figure is quadrilateral ABCD? Support your answer mathematically.

7. Draw the diagonals of ABCD. Find the coordinates of the midpoint of each diagonal. What do you
notice?

8. Find the lengths of the diagonals of ABCD. What do you notice?

9. Find the slopes of the diagonals of ABCD. What do you notice?

10. The diagonals of ABCD create four small triangles. Are any of these triangles congruent to any of the
others? Why or why not?

Plot points A = (1, 0), B = (-1, 2), and C = (2, 5).

11. Find the coordinates of a fourth point D that would make ABCD a rectangle.

Justify that ABCD is a rectangle.

12. Find the coordinates of a fourth point D that would make ABCD a parallelogram that is not also a
rectangle. Justify that ABCD is a parallelogram but is not a rectangle.
Euler’s Village Learning Task 4

You would like to build a house close to the village of Euler. There is a beautiful town square in the
village, and the road you would like to build your house on begins right at the town square.

The road follows an approximately north east direction as you leave town and continues for 3,000 feet.
It passes right by a large shade tree located approximately 200 yards east and 300 yards north of the
town square. There is a stretch of the road, between 300 and 1200 yards to the east of town, which
currently has no houses. This stretch of road is where you would like to locate your house. Building
restrictions require all houses sit parallel to the road. All water supplies are linked to town wells and the
closest well to this part of the road is 500 yards east and 1200 yards north of the town square.

1. How far from the well would it be if the house was located on the road 300 yards east of town? 500
yards east of town? 1,000 yards east of town? 1,200 yards east of town? (For the sake of calculations, do
not consider how far the house is from the road, just use the road to make calculations)

2. The cost of the piping leading from the well to the house is a major concern. Where should you locate
your house in order to have the shortest distance to the well? Justify your answer mathematically.

3. If the cost of laying pipes is $225 per linear yard, how much will it cost to connect your house to the
well?

4. The builder of your house is impressed by your calculations and wants to use the same method for
placing other houses. Describe the method you used. Would you want him to place the other houses in
the same manner?

5. Describe what the house, the road, and the shortest distance represent mathematically. Describe
your method mathematically.

6. Write a formula that the builder could use to find the cost of laying pipes to any house along this
road. How would you have to change your formula for another road?

Culminating Task: Surveillance of the Village 5

Agents Bourne, Bond, and Chan are assigned to surveillance of the town of Deadwood. Three roads
meet in the center of the town. One road runs directly east-west, and one runs only directly south. The
third road starts in the center of town and runs approximately northeast. Bond noticed he could reach
the third road by traveling 1 mile east and 2 miles north of the center of the village.

The three agents want to place themselves so they are at least 2 miles outside of town. To ensure
adequate radio communication, they must be less than 5 miles apart.

1. Where should they place themselves? Verify your answer mathematically.

2. Are there multiple options for their placements? Which option would you recommend and why?

After a day of surveillance, Bourne decides they need to make sure that all roads leaving town are under
surveillance. The agents are concerned about being seen from the road or town but they need to
maintain radio contact at all times. Chan drew up the following list of requirements for their placements
around the village:
Each agent should be at least 2 miles from town.

Each agent should be a least ½ mile from all roads.

Each road should be covered by at least one agent that is within 1.5 miles of that road, and an agent can
cover more than one road. Each pair of agents should be no more than 5 miles apart.

3. Where should the agents place themselves in order to meet all of the above requirements?

4. Could there be more than one arrangement of the agents? Verify all answers mathematically. Bourne
wishes to add a repeater, an electronic device that receives and rebroadcasts radio signals, to improve
the radio communication between the agents. He wishes to place the repeater in a location close to all
three agents.

5. Where should he place it? Why? Justify your answer mathematically