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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from Damien: How do you find 3 equidistant points (C,D,E) on a line between point A(Xa, Ya) and point B(Xb, Yb) so that AC, CD, DE and EB are all equal? |
Damien,
Using similar triangles, you see immediately that the problem reduces to first solving the it for the X's, then solving the same problem for the Y's. My advice is to first try the problem with actual numbers; Once you understand it, then work the given problem.
First try Xa = 0 and Xb = 4;
then try Xa = 0, Xb = 1;
then try Xa = 1, Xb = 2.
Chris
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