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Drawing parallel line segments

Sal draws parallel line segments with given points. Created by Sal Khan.

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Video transcript

Any pair of points can be connected by a line segment. That's right. Connect two pairs of black points in a way that creates two parallel line segments. So let's see if we can do that. So I could create one segment that connects this point to this point and then another one that connects this point to this point. And they look pretty parallel. In fact, I think this is the right answer. If we did it another way, if we had connected that point to that point and this point to this point, then it wouldn't look so parallel. These clearly, if they were to keep going, they would intersect at some point. So let me set it back up the way I did it the first time. Let me make these two points parallel. And these are line segments because they have two end points. They each have two end points. And they continue forever. Well they don't continue forever. They continue forever in no directions, in zero directions. If it was a ray, it would continue forever in one direction. If it's a line, it continues forever past both of these points. In fact, it wouldn't have end points because it would just continue forever in both of these directions. Let's do one more. Drag the ray so it has an endpoint at A, so we want to make its endpoint at A where the ray terminates and goes through one of the other black points. The ray should also be parallel to the pink line. So I have two options. I could make it go through this black point, but it's clearly not parallel. In fact, it looks perpendicular here. So let's try to make it go through this point. Well, yes, when I do that, it does indeed look like my ray is parallel to the pink line. And this is a ray because it has one endpoint. This is where the ray terminates. It's an endpoint. It literally ends there. And it continues forever in one direction. In this case, the direction is to the right. It continues forever to the right. So it continues forever in one-- continues forever in one direction.