coordinates of midpoint
The coordinates of the midpoint of a line segment
are the arithmetic means
of the coordinates of the endpoints
of the segment. Thus, if the endpoints are and , then the midpoint is
For justifying the above coordinates of the midpoint, we know that its abscissa halves on the -axis the line segment between and . Since the lengths of the half-segments are and , if , and their opposite numbers, if , in any case we can write
Solving this equation for yields: . result is gotten for the ordinate of the midpoint.