Question

Refer to a number line that is not pictured here. Point$A$has coordinate 2 and point$B$has coordinate 5.

What is the coordinate of the midpoint of $\overline{AB}$?

Short answer

The required coordinate is $3.5$.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Make the number line.

Make a number line that consists of two points $A$ and $B$ according to the provided information and a number 0 between $A$ and $B$.

Step 2. Form the equation required to calculate the coordinate.

The midpoint of given segment $\overline{AB}$ can be calculated by half of the addition between $A$ and role="math" localid="1649152325879" $B$ so make an equation according to this.

$\overline{AB}=\frac{A+B}{2}$

Step 3. Calculate the required coordinate.

Substitute the given values of $A$ and $B$ into the obtained equation and calculate the required coordinate.

$$\begin{gathered} \overline{AB}=\frac{2+5}{2} \\ =\frac{7}{2} \\ =3.5 \end{gathered}$$