A part of a straight line is called a line segment.
Actually, the meaning of line segment is derived from two words “Line” and “Segment”.
A line segment is graphically represented by a line with two endpoints. It is also known as a line between two points.
A line segment is formed geometrically in two different ways.
A line segment is basically an extracted part from a straight line.
$\overleftrightarrow{EF}$ is a straight line in a plane and identify any two points ($P$ and $Q$) on the line. Then, extract the small line at points $P$ and $Q$ from the straight line.
The small line which contains $P$ and $Q$ as endpoints, is a part of the straight line $\overleftrightarrow{EF}$. Therefore, it is called as a line segment geometrically.
On the basis of graphical representation of a line segment, the line segment in this example is written as $\overline{PQ}$ and its length is written as $PQ$ in mathematics.
A line that joins any two points in a plane is considered as a line segment. There are two main reasons for this consideration.
$M$ and $N$ are two points in a plane and join them by a line. The distance between the two points is equal to the length of the line. Moreover, it seems a line segment. Therefore, a line that joins any two points in a plane can be considered as a line segment.
The line segment is written as $\overline{MN}$ in mathematics and its length is represented by $MN$.
Learn how to solve easy to difficult mathematics problems of all topics in various methods with step by step process and also maths questions for practising.