• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Geometry Help
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Me
  • Terms of Service
  • Accessibility Statement
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Me
  • Terms of Service
  • Accessibility Statement
×

Right Triangles

A triangle in which one of the edges is perpendicular to another, forming a 90° angle is called a “Right triangle”:

Right Triangle

The two edges which form the right angle (a and b) are called the “legs”, and the third edge (c), opposite the right angle, is called the hypotenuse.

The properties of right triangles, which we will prove, are the things we will use in problems involving right triangles. These include:

1. The Pythagorean theorem: a2+b2 = c2 – this will be useful in any problem that asks us to find the edge lengths or areas of shapes made up of one or more right triangles.

2. The length of the median – a line that connects a vertice (or corner) of a triangle to the mid-point of the opposite side – to the hypotenuse is equal to half the length of the hypotenuse. We will use this whenever we see the median in a problem or the mid-point of the hypotenuse being used.

3. The sum of the two angles that are not the right angle is 90°  (since the sum of all the angles is 180 °, and the right angle is 90°, so the other two must sum up to 180°-90°= 90°). We’ll use these in problems involving finding angle sizes in right triangles.

--
Now that we've explained the basic concept of right triangles in geometry, let's scroll down to work on specific geometry problems relating to this topic.

medians to in right triangles

Medians to Legs of a Right Triangle

30-60-90 triangle

30-60-90 Triangle

Geometry shapes: Median to the hypotenuse

Right Triangles: Median to the Hypotenuse is Equal to Half the Hypotenuse

Geometry: two right triangles

45 45 90 Triangle

Primary Sidebar

About

Welcome to Geometry Help! I'm Ido Sarig, a high-tech executive with a BSc degree in Computer Engineering and an MBA degree in Management of Technology. I'm here to tell you that geometry doesn't have to be so hard! My goal with this website is to help you develop a better way to approach and solve geometry problems, even if spatial awareness is not your strongest quality. Read More…

Geometry Topics

  • Area of Geometric Shapes
  • Circles
    • Arcs, Angles, and Sectors
    • Chords
    • Inscribed Shapes
    • Tangent Lines
  • Lines and Angles
    • Intersecting Lines and Angles
    • Parallel Lines
    • Perpendicular lines
  • Pentagons and Hexagons
  • Perimeter of Geometric Shapes
  • Polygons
  • Quadrangles
    • Kites (Deltoids)
    • Parallelograms
    • Rectangles
    • Rhombus
    • Squares
    • Trapezoids
  • Triangles
    • Congruent Triangles
    • Equilateral Triangles
    • Isosceles Triangles
    • Pythagorean Theorem
    • Right Triangles
    • Similar Triangles
    • Triangle Inequalities

By accessing or using this website, you agree to abide by the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.


Copyright © 2023