Special right triangles

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Two types of special right triangles appear commonly in geometry, the "angle based" and the "side based" triangles. The two "angle based" triangles are the "45-45-90 triangle" and the "30-60-90 triangle." Four of the more common "side based" triangles are listed below. Knowing the ratios of the sides of these special right triangles allows one to quickly calculate various lengths in geometric problems.

1 Angle Based
- 1.1 45-45-90 Triangle
- 1.2 30-60-90 Triangle
2 Side Based
3 External links

[edit] Angle Based

"Angle based" special right triangles are specified by the angles of which the triangle is composed and the side lengths are generally deduced from the basis of the unit circle or other geometric methods. This form is most interesting in that it may be used to rapidly reproduce the values of trigonometric functions for the angles 30°, 45°, & 60°.

[edit] 45-45-90 Triangle

The side lengths of a 45-45-90 triangle

This is a triangle whose three angles respectively measure 45°, 45°, and 90°. The sides are in the ratio

$1:1:\sqrt{2}.$

A simple proof. Suppose you have such a triangle with legs a and b and hypotenuse c. Suppose that a = 1. Since two angles measure 45°, this is an isosceles triangle and we have b = 1. The fact that $c=\sqrt{2}$ follows immediately from the Pythagorean Theorem.

[edit] 30-60-90 Triangle

The side lengths of a 30-60-90 triangle

This is a triangle whose three angles respectively measure 30°, 60°, and 90°. The sides are in the ratio

$1:\sqrt{3}:2.$

The proof of this fact is obvious using trigonometry. Although the geometric proof is less apparent, it is equally trivial:

Draw an equilateral triangle ABC with side length 2 and with point D as the midpoint of segment BC. Draw an altitude line from A to D. Then ABD is a 30-60-90 triangle with hypotenuse of length 2, and base BD of length 1.

The fact that the remaining leg AD has length $\sqrt{3}$ follows immediately from the Pythagorean Theorem.

[edit] Side Based

All of the special side based right triangles posses angles which are not necessarily rational numbers, but whose sides are always integer numbers in length. They are most useful in that they may be easily remembered and any common multiple of the sides produces the same relationship.

There are theoretically an infinite number of such triangles with such a relationship; however, as the side lengths become larger, their usefulness is greatly diminished as an aide.