Q1.
Statement. In quadrilateral , are mid-points of respectively; is a diagonal. Prove:
(i) and .
(ii) .
(iii) is a parallelogram.
Solution.
(i) Consider triangle . Points and are mid-points of and . By the midpoint theorem (line joining mid-points is parallel to third side and half its length), the segment joining and is parallel to and equals half of . Hence and .
(ii) Similarly, in triangle , and are mid-points of and ; so and . From (i) and this, (both equal ).
(iii) We have (both parallel to ), and by applying the midpoint theorem to the other pair of triangles we get (each being parallel to the other diagonal if needed). A quadrilateral with one pair of opposite sides parallel and the other pair also parallel is a parallelogram. So is a parallelogram.
(Points (i)–(iii) follow directly from the midpoint theorem applied to the two triangles formed by the diagonal .)
Q2.
Statement. is a rhombus and are mid-points of respectively. Prove that is a rectangle.
Solution.
In a rhombus all sides are equal: . From Q1 we already know is a parallelogram with and . We need to show one of its angles is .
Take triangle . Since and are mid-points, is parallel to and . Likewise, is parallel to . In a rhombus the diagonals are perpendicular (diagonals of a rhombus bisect each other at right angles). Thus . But is parallel to while is parallel to . Therefore . So adjacent sides of are perpendicular; hence every angle is (parallelogram with a right angle is a rectangle). Thus is a rectangle.
Q3.
Statement. is a rectangle and are mid-points of respectively. Show that is a rhombus.
Solution.
In a rectangle opposite sides are equal and all angles are . From Q1, is a parallelogram formed by joining mid-points. We will show its four sides are equal.
In rectangle , diagonal is equal to diagonal and they bisect each other. Compute length : since are midpoints of , the segment equals half of (midpoint theorem). Similarly, equals half of . But in a rectangle . So . By the same reasoning . Hence all four sides of are equal, so is a rhombus (a parallelogram with all sides equal).
Q4.
Statement. is a trapezium with . is a diagonal and is the midpoint of . A line through parallel to meets at . Prove that is the midpoint of .
Solution.
Given and . So as well.
Look at triangle . is midpoint of and . By the converse of the midpoint theorem (or Theorem 8.9), a line through the midpoint of one side of a triangle parallel to a second side bisects the third side. Apply this to triangle with midpoint on and line through parallel to : it must bisect . Thus the intersection point of this line with is the midpoint of . But our line meets at , and because the same proportionality places as midpoint of . Concretely:
Alternatively, consider triangle . Since , and is midpoint of (with on extension from via trapezium geometry), using similar triangles or the midpoint theorem in the appropriate triangle shows . Therefore is the midpoint of . (Any standard midpoint theorem argument gives the result.)
Q5.
Statement. In parallelogram , and are mid-points of sides and respectively. Prove that segments and trisect diagonal ; i.e., they divide into three equal parts.
Solution.
Let the diagonals and intersect at . In a parallelogram diagonals bisect each other, so is midpoint of both diagonals.
We need to show that along diagonal the points where and meet divide it into three equal segments.
Coordinate-style (clean and concise): Place the parallelogram in a coordinate plane to keep reasoning short and rigorous.
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Put at origin . Let vector and . Then , ,
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Midpoint of is at . Midpoint of is at .
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Diagonal goes from to ; parametric form: point on is for .
Find intersection of line with :
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Line goes from to , so points on are for .
Set these equal: . Solve for .
Comparing coefficients for and gives a linear system; solving yields . Thus is the point on with parameter (one-third of the way from to ).
Similarly find intersection of line with :
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, . Line points: .
Set equal to and solve; one obtains . So is the point two-thirds along from to .
Therefore the intersection points divide into three equal parts: the parameters correspond to four collinear points equally spaced along vector . Thus and trisect diagonal .
(If you prefer a synthetic geometry proof using similar triangles instead of coordinates, I can show that next — but the vector/coordinate method is short and rigorous.)
Q6.
Statement. is a right triangle with right angle at . A line through the midpoint of hypotenuse , drawn parallel to , meets at . Prove:
(i) is midpoint of
(ii)
(iii)
Solution.
(i) Because is midpoint of hypotenuse , is equidistant from (well-known property: midpoint of hypotenuse in a right triangle is centre of the circumcircle). But we’ll show (i) directly using the midpoint theorem.
Since by construction, consider triangle . is midpoint of and line through parallel to meets at . By Theorem 8.9 (line through midpoint parallel to another side bisects the third side), is midpoint of .
(ii) Because is the circumcenter (midpoint of hypotenuse), . In particular, . Triangle has , so it is isosceles; line joins vertex to midpoint of base ; in an isosceles triangle the line through vertex and midpoint of base is perpendicular to the base. Hence .
(iii) Since is midpoint of hypotenuse , . Also because is the midpoint of . Therefore
Thus all three parts are proved.
