medians, altitudes and perpendicular bisectors

[kcox]

ok. i need so much help! i really dont understand altitudes, medians and perpendicular bisectors. how do you find each of these from a triangle whose points are A (-3, -1) ; B (1, 3) and C (3, 1)

 

[ting]

Take a deep beath.

One step at a time.

First step. Nice big sheet of squared paper, plot the points and join the dots.

Then find out what the altitudes are here

http://www.mathwords.com/a/altitude_triangle.htm

Find out what the median is here

http://www.mathwords.com/m/median_of_a_triangle.htm

Perpendicular bisector here

http://www.mathwords.com/p/perpendicular_bisector.htm


Now where are you stuck.

Please clarify what you need to know about the above i.e points, lengths of line segments, equations of lines e.t.c.

 

[kcox]

can you work me through that problem perhaps? here it is again...

Find the altitude, median and perpendicular bisector of this triangle: A (-3, -1) B (1, 3) C (3, 1).

Thank you soo much for your help. im sure ill be asking you a lot more!!

 

[Gene]

The altitude is perpendicular to the base, thru the third vertex.
The median is from the center of the base, thru the third vertex.
The perpendicular bisector is perpendicular to the base, at the center of the base.

Now will you respond to ting's question about where you are stuck.