Question

What are the coordinates of the point on the directed line segment from (-5, 8) to(-1,-8) that partitions the segment into a ratio of 3 to 1?

Answer 1

the given edge poitnts of the line are (-5, 8) and (-1 , -8)

let point (x, y) divide the line in 3 : 1

so the point (x, y ) will be

`x=(3*-1+1*-5)/(3+1)`
`x=(-3-5)/(4)=(-8)/(4)=-2`

x=-2

and y

`\begin{gathered} y=(3*-8+1*8)/(3+1) \\ y=(-24+8)/(4)=(-14)/(4)=(-7)/(2) \end{gathered}`

so answer is, the coordinate of the point is (-2, -7/2).