Question about aligning line segments

Question

I have written this code for two line segments. I want to line them up to show that you can take sub intervals of the original, and add it to the new line segment.

\begin{center}
    {$\overline{\rm AB}$}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw (0,0) -- (5,0) ;
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\begin{center}
{$\overline{\rm CD}$}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw (0,0) -- (7.5,0) ;
\end{tikzpicture} 
\end{center}

I'd love something like this:

I'm very new to latex, would you know something better that could do that? — Rudy Myers, May 30 '21 at 16:41
If you want something more like underbraces, have a look at this question. — SebGlav, May 30 '21 at 17:53

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 30 '21 at 17:20

This can be done with simple \rule commands and the mathtools package. I took the liberty to replace the \underbraces with \underbrackets, as I find them more expressive in this context:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\begin{document}
\begin{align}
    \begin{gathered}
           \overline{\mathrm{AB}} \[-2.5ex]
           \underbracket[0.5pt]{\rule{2cm}{0.8pt}}{\tfrac{1}{2}} \clap{\rule{0.4em}{0.8pt}}\mkern-3mu \underbracket[0.5pt]{\rule{2cm}{0.8pt}}{\tfrac{1}{2}}
        \end{gathered}
        & \qquad
   \begin{gathered}
           \overline{\mathrm{CD}} \[-2.5ex]
           \underbracket[0.5pt]{\rule{2cm}{0.8pt}}{\tfrac{1}{2}} \clap{\rule{0.4em}{0.8pt}} \mkern-3mu \underbracket[0.5pt]{\rule{2cm}{0.8pt}}{\tfrac{1}{2}} \clap{\rule{0.4em}{0.8pt}} \mkern-3mu \underbracket[0.5pt]{\rule{2cm}{0.8pt}}_{\tfrac{1}{2}}
        \end{gathered}
 \end{align}
\end{document}

Note you can use as a second optional argument of \underbracket the length of its vertical part. — Bernard, May 30 '21 at 17:34

Question about aligning line segments

1 Answers1