ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Title: Co-ordinate Geometry.

Purpose: The purpose of this document is to disburse (please add the purpose here)
to the attendees.

Configuration Management

Date Modification Version Description

119
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Table of Contents
Sr. No. Description Page No.

Lengths & Gradients

219
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Finding the distance between 2 points is a matter of simple Pythagoras

So to find the distance between 2 points you just calculate the difference in x and
y, and then put these into Pythagoras' formula

e.g.

Find the
distance
between the
points

319
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Find the
distance
between the
points

Finding the gradient of a line is just as simple. You simply work out the change in x
and y, then apply trigonometry.

Note It is important that you are consistent, when calculating the change in x and y. You must start at the
same point for both calculations, or your gradient will go the wrong way!

The gradients of the two lines above, are worked out below.

419
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

The Equation Of A Straight

519
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Line

The standard form for the equation of a straight line is

where m is the gradient and the is the value of y where the line crosses the y-axis,(
the y-intercept.) You should be familiar with this formula, from as long ago as Year
8!

At A-level, you need to be able to find the equation of a line in 2 situations

1. You are given the gradient and one point on the line,( not the intercept.)
2. You are given two points on the line.

Case 1

We want to find the

Suppose that you are told
equation that connects x
that a straight line has a
and y at any point on the
gradient of 2 and passes
line, so we can pick a
through the point (1,3)
general point (x,y)

619
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

If we apply the gradient

formula

This method can be

generalized, so that a line
with gradient m, passing
through the point (x1,y1),
has the equation

Example

Find the equation of the

line L with

passing through the point

(-1,2)
Put the values into the
formula

remove the brackets on

the bottom

Cross multiply.

Re-arrange to make y
positive

Tidy up, making y the

subject.

719
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Finding the Equation of a

Straight Line-cont.
Finding the equation from two points

Consider the line that passes through the points (2,2) and (5,1)

We can find the gradient

of the line

It is perfectly okay to leave

We can now use this
the equation in this form,
gradient, together with
unless you where asked
one the points, to find the
for an answer in the form
equation
y=mx+c.

The right
hand
side is
This method can be summed up by the formula just
calculati
ng the
gradient.

819
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Example - Find the equation of the line

that passes through the points (-3,-2)
and (2,5)

Substitute the numbers

into the formula

Simplify

Cross multiply and tidy up

It does not matter which

point you use on the left
hand side.

You end up with the same

answer.

919
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Midpoints
To find the midpoint of a line joining two points, there is an easy, or a more
complicated,( but still easy,) method. First, the more complicated method.

Find the midpoint between (-1,4) and (7,-

2)

1019
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

To move from one point to the other, you

move 8 in the x-direction and -6 in the y-
direction. Therefore to get to the
midpoint, you move (4,-3)

The midpoint is therefore (-1+4,4-3) = (3,1)

How can we write this method down mathematically?

Call the two points

We can therefore calculate

To move from the first point

to the midpoint, we must
move

This is just the average of

So the x co-ordinate is
the two points.

The same is true for y, so the

easy way to find the midpoint
of

is , the midpoint is

Example

1119
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Find the midpoint of (6,5) and (2,-3)

Put the co-ordinates into the formula.

Simplify to find midpoint.

Sketching Curves From

Cartesian Equations

When you are asked to sketch a function, you are not supposed to plot any points,
other than the ones described below.

In order to sketch a function, you need to establish certain things about its
behaviour.

1 Where does it cross the axes?

2 Are there any assymptotes?

3 What happens as x goes to infinity?

1219
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

4 Are there any stationary points and where is the function

increasing/decreasing?

The examples below should demonstrate how to collect and use this information.

Example 1

Sketch the function

To find where the curve crosses the x-axis, set

1
y=0

To find where the curve crosses the y-axis, set

x=0

So, the curve crosses the axes at (-2,0) and

(0,2)

2 There is an assymptote when we divide by 0

So, as x goes to infinity, y goes to -1

1319
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

There is a more formal way of showing this,

by re-arranging

So, as

To identify any stationary points and find

where the curve is
increasing/decreasing, we need to
4
differentiate.

We can see that the derivative can

never equal 0, so there are no
stationary points.

Since the denominator is always

positive, we can also say that the
gradient is always positive.

Our function is always increasing.

Before sketching the curve, let's summarize the important facts.

1 The curve cuts the axes at (0,2) and (2,0)

2 There is an assymptote at x=1
3 As x goes to infinity, y goes to -1

1419
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

4 The curve is always increasing

Putting all these together, we get

Sketching Functions-cont. MathsDirect

Sketch a curve of the

function

To find where the curve crosses the x-axis, set

1
y=0

To find where the curve crosses the y-axis, set

x=0

So the curve only crosses the axes at the point

(0,0)

There will be an assymptote when we divide by

2
0

1519
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

So there are assymptotes at x = -3 and x = 3

4 Differentiate

For a stationary point we want

The denominator is always

positive, so the sign of the
gradient depends purely on
the numerator

Before sketching, summarize the information.

1 The curve cuts the axes at (0,0). This is also the only stationary point on the
curve, and since the gradient is +ve to the left and -ve to the right, this point

1619
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

must be a maximum
2 The curve has assymptotes at x = -3 and x = 3
3 Towards infinity, the curve approaches 0.

Sketching Curves From

Parametric Equations
How do you sketch the curve described by the parametric equations?

The simplest method is to eliminate the t, so that you are left with a cartesian
equation.

To do this, make t the subject of one

equation and then substitute this into the
other equation

1719
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

Now, you just need to follow the method for sketching a cartesian function.

The curve crosses the axes at (0,0) and (2,0)

2 There are no assymptotes

4 Differentiate

Therefore there is a
stationary point at
Looking either side

Summarizing the results

1 The curve cuts the axes at (0,0) and (0,2)

2 The curve goes to infinity as x goes to infinity,( plus or minus.)
3 There is a minimum at (1,-1)

1819
 ЭmЄ

Engineering made Easy

Make the world trust you now!!!

1919