The following statements describe a set of railroad tracks. Based only on the statement, make a conclusion about the rails or the railroad ties. Explain.

a. The railroad ties are each perpendicular to one rail.

b. The rails are parallel. One railroad tie is perpendicular to one rail.

Part a) The railroad ties are parallel

Part b) One railroad tie is perpendicular to both rails

Step-by-step explanation:

Part a) The railroad ties are each perpendicular to one rail

we know that

if one line is perpendicular to several other lines, then the other lines are parallel

Conclusion:

If the railroad ties are each perpendicular to one rail then the railroad ties are parallel

That means> The slopes of the railroad ties are equal and they are opposite reciprocal to the slope of the rail

Part b) The rails are parallel. One railroad tie is perpendicular to one rail

we know that

if two lines are parallel and another line is perpendicular to one of them, then this line is perpendicular to both lines

Conclusion:

If One railroad tie is perpendicular to one rail, then one railroad tie is perpendicular to both rails

That means ---> The slopes of the railroad ties are opposite reciprocal to the slope of the rail

there are lots of ways.   pick's theorem tells us if the vertices are lattice points the area a is

a = b/2 + i - 1

where b is the number of boundary lattice points and i is the number of interior lattice points.

in the figure i count b=16, i=50 so

a = 8 + 50 - 1 = 57

let's try the shoelace formula.   the area is half the sum of the cross products of the sides.  

a(-2,6)   -2(2)-6(-5) = 26

b(-5,2)   -5(-3) - 2(-2) = 19

c(-2,-3) -2(-3) - (-3)(4) = 18

d(4,-3)   4(3) - (-3)(5) = 27

e(5,3)   5(3) - 3(1) = 12

f(1,3)     1(6) - 3(-2) = 12

a(-2,6)

each of the cross products is twice the area of the triangle with the associated side and one vertex the origin. so the area of abo=26/2=13.

area = (1/2) (26 + 19 +   18 + 27 + 12 + 12) = 57

that checks!