Recall that the distance between the points after a dilation is equal to the distance before the dilation multiplied by the scale factor.
Notice that the coordinates of points P and Q are:
[tex]P(-5,-4),\text{ Q(4,-4).}[/tex]
Then the original distance between the points is:
[tex]4-(-5)=4+5=9.[/tex]
Therefore, the distance after the dilation is:
[tex]9\times\frac{1}{2}=4.5.[/tex]
Answer:
[tex]4.5\text{ units.}[/tex]
