Special Right Triangles
When you’ve determined the angles of your right triangle, use the following ratios to bypass the
Pythagorean theorem:
If a triangle problem contains a or a , you can most likely use one of these special triangles.
If you don’t know the angles, you can often bypass the Pythagorean theorem with the Pythagorean triples:
These Pythagorean triples are basic ratios, so they can be multiplied to be used with larger numbers.
6:8:10 is commonly cited as a Pythagorean triple, but it is just the 3:4:5 multiplied by 2.
Four-Sided Figures (Quadrilaterals)
Parallelogram: Opposite sides are parallel, opposite sides and angles are equal
