Right triangle

Revision as of 15:39, 29 June 2006 by Mathgeek2006 (talk | contribs)

A right triangle is any triangle with an angle of 90 degrees.

Righttriangle.png

In the example above, you see that angle C has a measure of 90 degrees, so it is a right triangle. The sides of a right triangle have two names. The hypotenuse is the side opposite the angle measuring 90 degrees, or in this picture, c. The legs are the other two sides.

Right triangles are very useful in Geometry and in finding the areas of polygons. Many theorems are based on it including:

-Pythagorean Theorem

All or almost all Trigonometric identities are based on right triangles.

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