Coordinates of corners
Use the applet to make some squares. What patterns do you notice in the coordinates?
This resource is part of "Dotty Grids - Exploring Coordinates and Vectors"
Move the dots below to make some squares. Can you make a variety of squares whose sides are not parallel to the axes?
If you have a set of four coordinates, is there a quick way to decide (without drawing) whether they form a square?
Ahmed found some collections of which made squares.
- (8,3), (7,8), (2,7), (3,2)
- (16,19), (18,22), (21,20), (19,17)
- (4,20), (21,19), (20,2), (3,3)
- $\pmatrix{7\cr 8}-\pmatrix{8\cr 3}=\pmatrix{-1\cr 5}=\pmatrix{2\cr 7}-\pmatrix{3\cr 2}$
Beth from Oxford found a more complete pattern
In order to be a square it needs two things
- All the sides are the same length
- All the angles are right angles
If you take the second coordinate away from the first coordinate, the third coordinate away from the second coordinate, the fourth coordinate away from the third coordinate and the first coordinate away from the fourth coordinate, you always get a pattern which looks like
$$\pmatrix{x\cr y},\quad\pmatrix{y\cr-x},\quad\pmatrix{-x\cr -y},\pmatrix{-y\cr x}$$
Why do you think this is? You might want to look at vectors round a square next.
Susie suggested a different way of deciding whether or not the pattern is a square.
If we consider the six distances between the four points and we have four of them of size $a$, for some $a$, and two of them of size $a\times \sqrt{2}$, then we have a square. So we need to compute all the distances between the four points. If they have coordinates $(x_1,y_1), (x_2,y_2), (x_3, y_3), (x_4, y_4)$, then the six distances are $\sqrt{(x_i-x_j)^2 +(y_i-y_j)^2}$ for $1\leq i<j \leq 4$. After that, we arrange them in order and we see whether or not the first four distances are the same, say $a$, and the next two are each of length $a\times \sqrt2$. If they are, then they form a square, otherwise, they don't.
Well done to everyone who sent in a solution. Keep exploring!
For ideas on how this problem and others from the Dotty Grids Collections can be used in the classroom, you may be interested to read this article.