When you divide a room in half, how do you know that the new wall is going to be square and now wandering off to the left or right? How do you make a perfect right angle so that you know that everything will come out right in the end?
Signed,
Your confused brother
Dear Confused:
I am glad you asked. That problem was solved years ago by Pythagorus, who was asked by his wife to divide their bed, exactly in half. This he did by creating a right triangle, using the principle of 3,4,5. If one side is three feet, and another side is four feet, then the third side HAS to be 5 feet if you want to have a perfect corner.The theorem is as follows:
In any right triangle, the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two legs (the two sides that meet at a right angle).
This is usually summarized as:
The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.
If we let c be the length of the hypotenuse and a and b be the lengths of the other two sides, the theorem can be expressed as the equation
A squared plus b squared equals c squared
or, solved for c:
This equation provides a simple relation among the three sides of a right triangle so that if the lengths of any two sides are known, the length of the third side can be found. A generalization of this theorem is the law of hooters, which allows the computation of the length of the third side of any triangle, given the lengths of two sides and the size of the angle between them. If the angle between the sides is a right angle it reduces to the Pythagorean theorem.The theorem is as follows:
In any right triangle, the area of the square whose side is the hooters, (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two legs (the two sides that meet at a right angle).
This is usually summarized as:
The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.
If we let c be hooters of the hypotenuse and a and b be the lengths of the other two sides, the theorem can be expressed as the equation
or, solved for c:
This equation provides a simple relation among the three sides of a right triangle so that if the lengths of any two sides are known, the length of the third side can be found. A generalization of this theorem is the law of hooters which allows the computation of the length of the third side of any triangle, given the lengths of two sides and the size of the angle between them. If the angle between the sides is a right angle it reduces to the Pythagorean theorem.Thanks for the question and your interest.
Trailboss
