MATHEMATICIAN

DATE

BAND

CROSSED DIAGONALS
ADV GEOMETRY | PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE

There is a really special property that some quadrilaterals have.

Lets show it to you! When diagonals intersect, they form four
mini-line segments, with lengths a, b, c, and d. For some
quadrilaterals, (a)(c)=(b)(d). Lets say if a quadrilateral has this
property, it is a blermion.
1. Is this quadrilateral a blermion?

2. Is this quadrilateral a blermion?

3. Use the Crossed Diagonals geogebra sheet to make some conjectures for whether
the following quadrilaterals are always, sometimes, or never [A/S/N] blermions.
Trapezoid: ______

Isosceles Trapezoid: ______

Rhombus: ______

Parallelogram: ______

Kite: ______
Rectangle: ______

Square: ______
4. Are there any commonalities among the quadrilaterals that youve identified as
blermions? Make a conjecture about blermions!
All blermions are
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5. Okay, are you ready for this? You better be! Drag the four points (in order) to
P1=(3,9), P2= (2,6), P3=(4,2), and P4=(11,9). Yup. YUP. Was this expected?!?!?!?
MIND BLOWN. Maybe? Yes? GOOD!

6. Try to find more blermions that arent nice quadrilaterals that we have names for
Im giving you the same three points as above. Keep the same three points, and find
different fourth points. (No, you cant use (11,9) again.) Your points definitely dont
need to be lattice points. Your (a)(c) and (b)(d) should be almost exactly equal (they
can be off by a few hundredths if you cant get it exact).
P1
(3,9)
(3,9)
(3,9)
(3,9)

P2
(2,6)
(2,6)
(2,6)
(2,6)

P3
(4,2)
(4,2)
(4,2)
(4,2)

P4

You have found four blermions. Your group members have found many other
blermions. On a single blank geogebra sheet, someone from your group should plot
points P1, P2, and P3 as red points. And then plot all the different P4s that your group
came up with as green points.
Based on your geogebra explorations, do you have a revised conjecture you feel
confident making?
All blermions are
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