Equation practice with midpoints

The  exercise appears under the 8th Grade Math Mission. This exercise practices solving linear equations with the geometric concept of midpoint.

Types of Problems
There is one type of problem in this exercise:


 * 1) Find the length of the segment: This problem provides a segment that is divided into two subsegments by a midpoint. The lengths of the two subsegments are given with variables and the student is asked to use this information to find the length of the initial segment.Epwm1.png

Strategies
Knowledge of the definition of midpoint and an ability to solve linear equations will ensure success on this exercise.
 * 1) The midpoint of a segment divides the segment into two congruent pieces.
 * 2) The problem gives the lengths of the two small pieces, so these should always be set equal to each other to solve for the variable.
 * 3) The problem asks for the length of the entire segment. Once the value of the variable is found it should be replaced into one of the expressions to find one of the lengths and then that length should be double for the length of the entire segment.

Real-life applications

 * 1) Many geometric concepts come up in the fields of architecture and graphical design.