Question

Greg is designing the clock face for a homemade clock. Using the center of the clock face as the origin, he places the label 12 at the point (0, 5). At what point should he place the label 6?

Answer 1

(0, -5)

Graph these points so that the center of the clock is at (0, 0) and 12 is at (0, 5).

You know that, on a clock, 6 is directly below point 12 (0, 5). Therefore, we know that point 6 will have an x coordinate of 0.

Point 6 will also be the same distance from the center that point 12 is. Note that point 12 is 5 units from the center. Thus, point 6 will also be 5 units from the center.

There are two points that have an x coordinate of 0 and are 5 units from the center (0, 0). These are (0, 5) and (0, -5). Since the first of these is point 12, we know that (0, -5) must be point 6.