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Display the image for all to see. Ask students to think of at least one thing they notice and at least one thing they wonder. Give students 1 minute of quiet think time, and then 1 minute to discuss with their partner the things they notice and wonder, followed by a whole-class discussion. Move through this relatively quickly so students have time to engage in the activity.
Things students may notice:
Things students may wonder:
Priya writes a proof saying:
Consider any 2 parallel lines. Assume they are not horizontal or vertical. Construct a horizontal line that crosses both of the parallel lines. Then construct a vertical line through the midpoint of the horizontal segment between the lines. This forms 2 congruent triangles. Since the sides of the right triangles are horizontal and vertical, we can use them to find the slope of the parallel lines. Therefore the parallel lines have the same slope.
How does Priya know that the right triangles are congruent?
Invite students to share their reasoning in response to each question. Highlight any students who annotated their image to make their explanations clearer.
Here are some additional questions for discussion:
Tell students that the converse is also true: If two lines have equal slopes, then they are parallel. Add the following theorem to the class reference chart, and ask students to add it to their reference charts:
Lines are parallel if and only if they have equal slopes. (Theorem)
To Gather
Geometry toolkits (HS)
In this activity, students use the result of a previous proof that parallel lines have the same slope to show that the opposite sides of a quadrilateral have the same slope and are therefore parallel. This leads to the conclusion that the quadrilateral is a parallelogram. This gives an opportunity for students to apply the proof and prepares them for proofs about parallelograms in later courses. Students do not need to formally prove that a figure on a grid is a parallelogram at this time, but students may recognize that two pairs of intersecting parallel lines form a parallelogram. Students make use of the structure of translation by a directed line segment to make observations about slope and parallel lines (MP7).
Monitor for students who use different equivalent equations to represent the parallel lines and ask them to share in the whole-class discussion.
Making dynamic geometry software available gives students an opportunity to choose appropriate tools strategically (MP5).
Invite students to share their equations for the lines and how they came up with them. Here are some questions to elicit further discussion: