Question

Show that the line segments joining the mid-points of opposite sides of a quadrilateral bisects each other.

Answer 1

Let ABCD is the quadrilateral and P, Q, R, S are mid points of the sides AB, BC, CD, DA respectively.

Join DB to form triangle ABD.
\[\frac{AS}{SD} = \frac{AP}{PB}\]
\[ \Rightarrow SP || DB \hspace{0.167em} \hspace{0.167em} and \hspace{0.167em} \hspace{0.167em} SP = \frac{1}{2} \hspace{0.167em} DB\]
In triangle BCD
\[\frac{CR}{RD} = \frac{CQ}{QB}\]
\[ \Rightarrow RQ || DB \hspace{0.167em} \hspace{0.167em} and \hspace{0.167em} \hspace{0.167em} RQ = \frac{1}{2} \hspace{0.167em} \hspace{0.167em} DB\]
In quadrilateral PQRS,
SP = RQ and SP || RQ
∴ PQRS is a parallelogram.
Diagonals of a parallelogram bisect each other.
∴ PR and QS bisect each other.