cheab14 said:The question reads: find the value of k to make the points (3,9) (7, k), and (-1,6) collinear.
Does this involve using the distance formula? Whether or not it does, how would I go about solving this problem?
Collinear points are points that lie on the same straight line. This means that if we were to draw a line connecting these 3 points, they would all fall on the same line.
To determine if 3 points are collinear, we can use the slope formula to calculate the slopes of the lines connecting each pair of points. If the slopes are equal, then the points are collinear.
In some cases, we may have 2 points that are already collinear, but we need to add a third point to make all 3 points collinear. In this case, we need to find the value of k, which represents the position of the third point on the line connecting the first 2 points.
The steps to find the value of k are as follows:
Yes, if the points are already collinear, then we do not need to find the value of k. However, if we are given 2 points and need to add a third point to make them collinear, then we will need to find the value of k.