Exploring Special Right Triangles

Use the slider to control the length of the smallest leg of the triangles. Use the checkboxes to turn on/off the different triangles.
1. Turn on the 45-45-90 triangle and move the slider around.[br] a. What do you notice about the lengths of the legs?[br] b. How does the length of the hypotenuse compare to the length of the legs?[br] c. Write a rule explaining the relationship between the lengths of the legs and hypotenuse in a 45-45-90 right triangle.[br][br]2. Turn off the 45-45-90 triangle, turn on the 30-60-90 triangle, and move the slider around.[br] a. What do you notice about the length of the smallest leg compared to the length of the hypotenuse?[br] b. What do you notice about the length of the smaller leg compared to the length of the larger leg?[br] c. Write a rule explaining the relationship between the lengths of the legs and hypotenuse in a 30-60-90 right triangle.

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