Bisecting the Sides of a Triangle Lab

Directions for Finding the Midpoint of Each Side of a Triangle:

1) Go to www.geogebra.org and click Start GeoGebra, then click
Geometry.
2) Click the icon at the top with a triangle (the 5th option from the
left). Under the drop-down menu, click Polygon.
3) Create a triangle of any size.
4) Click the icon at the top with a point labeled A (the 2nd option
from the left) Under the drop-down menu, click Midpoint or
Center.
5) First, get the midpoint of AB, then BC, then CA. Make sure to do it
in this order.
6) Next, click the icon at the top with the picture of a line segment
(the 3rd option from the left). On the drop-down menu, click
Segment.
7) Connect each midpoint with the vertex of the triangle opposite to
it. You should end up with line segments DC, EA, and BF.
8) Create a second triangle, GHI using the same, exact method as
you did for ABC (Steps 2 7). Make sure to get the midpoints of
each side in this order: GH, HI, and IG. Connect each midpoint to
its opposite vertex to obtain the line segments JI, KG, LH.
9) Do not erase your triangles; you will need them for the second
part of the lab.

Lab Questions:
1) Is AF FC? Why or why not?

2) Is HJ HK? Why or why not?

3) What do you notice about lines DC, EA, and BF in ABC? Is the
same true of lines JI, KG, and LH in GHI?
 Bisecting the Sides of a Triangle Lab

Directions for Measuring the Medians of a Triangle:

1) Click the icon at the top with 3 points (the 2nd option from the
left). On the drag-down menu, click Point.
2) First, label the centroid of ABC as M and then label the
centroid of GHI as N.
3) Click the icon at the top with a line and a cm (the 8th option
from the left). On the drag-down menu, click Distance or
Length.
4) Start in ABC. Click the centroid, M, and then click D, to find the
length of MD. Repeat this process for the other 5 line segments
in ABC (MC, ME, MA, MF, MB). Fill in your measurements in the
table below.
5) Do the same in GHI. When getting the lengths, click N first,
and then click the other point. Find the lengths for line segments
NJ, NI, NK, NG, NL, and NK. Fill in your measurements in the table
below.

AB Measureme GH Measureme
C nt I nt
Median MD NJ
1 MC NI
Median ME NK
2 MA NG
Median MF NL
3 MB NK

Lab Questions:

1) What do you notice about the lengths of the segments within

each median? How are the two numbers related?

2) If you are given the length of the longer side of the median, how
can you find the shorter side of the median?
Bisecting the Sides of a Triangle Lab