Investigating Some Point & Line Reflections

1) Reflecting a point in three concurrent lines
The dynamic sketch below shows three line segments (or lines) AD, BD and CD concurrent at D as well as a point E not on any of the three line segments (or lines).

Construction: Either click on the 'Sequence 4 Actions' button (which will automatically carry out the four construction steps below) or click on the buttons underneath to carry out the first four constructions:
Step 1: Click on the Show Point E1' button to reflect E around AD.
Step 2: Click on the Show Point E2' button to reflect E around BD.
Step 3: Click on the Show Point E3' button to reflect E around CD.
Step 4: Click on the Show Circle button to construct a circle through three of the four points above.

Conjecture 1
What do you notice about this circle? Formulate a conjecture.
Thoroughly check your observation by dragging any of the red points.

Further Construction: Click on the Show More Reflections button to show more reflections of the points around the three lines. What do you notice?

Investigating Point & Line Reflections

2) Reflecting a line in three concurrent lines
In the dynamic sketch above, click on the 'Link to Lines Reflected' button to navigate to this investigation. Instead of a point, this sketch has a line EF not coincident with any of the three concurrent line segments (or lines).

Construction: Either click on the 'Sequence 4 Actions' button (which will automatically carry out the four construction steps below) or click on the buttons underneath to carry out the first four constructions:
Step 1: Click on the Show Line j1' button to reflect EF around AD.
Step 2: Click on the Line j2' button to reflect EF around BD.
Step 3: Click on the Line j3' button to reflect EF around CD.
Step 4: Click on the Show Circle button to construct a circle tangent to three of the four lines above.

Conjecture 2
What do you notice about this circle? Formulate a conjecture.
Thoroughly check your observation by dragging any of the red points.

Further Construction: Click on the Line j2'' button to show the reflection of Line j2' around CD. What do you notice?

Challenge
Can you logically explain why (prove that) your observations in Investigations 1) & 2) are true?

Generalize
Can you further generalize (& prove) your observations in Investigations 1) & 2)?



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Created 24 August 2022 by Michael de Villiers, using WebSketchpad.