obtuse.You can solvethis problemin a manneralmostidenticalto example2 above.
Example 3
Is the trianglebelowacuteor obtuse?The two shortersidesof the triangleare and The longestside of the triangleis First find the sum
of the squaresof the two shorterlegs.
The sum of the squaresof the two shorterlegs is Comparethis to the squareof the longestside,The squareof the longestside is 100. Since , this triangleis not a right triangle.Compare
the two valuesto identifywhichis greater.
Sincethe sum of the squareof the shortersidesis less than the squareof the longestside,this is an obtuse
triangle.
TriangleClassification
Now that you knowthe ideaspresentedin this lesson,you can classifyany triangleas right,acute,or obtuse
giventhe lengthof the threesides.Beginby orderingthe sidesof the trianglefrom smallestto largest,and
substitutethe threeside lengthsinto the equationgivenby the PythagoreanTheoremusing.
Be sure to use the longestside for the hypotenuse.
- If , the figureis a right triangle.
- If , the figureis an acutetriangle.
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If , the figureis an obtusetriangle.Example 4
Classifythe trianglebelowas right,acute,or obtuse.