Types of Triangles

Isosceles, Equilateral, Scalene, Obtuse. . .

Triangles can be classified by various properties relating to their angles and sides. The most common classifications are described on this page.
This Page: Practice Identifying Triangle Types Related Page: Online Triangle Calculator | Triangle and its properties

Classifications of Triangles

Right Triangles

A right triangle has one 90 and a variety of often-studied properties including:

Right Triangle Calculator Proof of Pythagorean Theorem Pythagorean Triplets Sine, Cosine, Tangent Pictures of Right Triangles o 7 24 25 Right Triangle Images o 3 4 5 Right Triangles o 5 12 13 Right Triangles

The Equilateral triangle shown on the left has three equal sides and three equal angles. Each angle is 60

The Isosceles equal angles.

triangle shown on the left has two equal sides and two

The Scalene Triangle has no congruent sides. In other words, each side must have a different length..

The Acute Triangle has three acute angles (an acute angle measur less than 90)

The Obtuse Triangle has an obtuse angle (an obtuse angle has more than 90). In the picture on the left, the shaded angle is the obtuse angle that distinguishes this triangle Since the total degrees in any triangle is 180, an obtuse triangle can only have one angle that measures more than 90.

Triangles
A triangle has three sides and three angles

The three angles always add to 180

Equilateral, Isosceles and Scalene

There are three special names given to triangles that tell how many sides (or angles) are equal. There can be 3, 2 or no equal sides/angles:

Equilateral Triangle
Three equal sides Three equal angles, always 60

Isosceles Triangle
Two equal sides Two equal angles

Scalene Triangle
No equal sides No equal angles

What Type of Angle?

Triangles can also have names that tell you what type of angle is inside:

Acute Triangle
All angles are less than 90

Right Triangle
Has a right angle (90)

Obtuse Triangle
Has an angle more than 90

Combining the Names

Sometimes a triangle will have two names, for example:

Right Isosceles Triangle

Has a right angle (90), and also two equal angles Can you guess what the equal angles are?

Play With It ...

Try dragging the points around and make different triangles:

You might also like to play with the Interactive Triangle.

Perimeter
The perimeter is the distance around the edge of the triangle: just add up the three sides:

Area

The area is half of the base times height. "b" is the distance along the base "h" is the height (measured at right angles to the base)

Area = b h

The formula works for all triangles. Note: another way of writing the formula is bh/2

Example: What is the area of this triangle?

(Note: 12 is the height, not the length of the left-hand side) Height = h = 12 Base = b = 20

Area = b h = 20 12 = 120
The base can be any side, Just be sure the "height" is measured at right angles to the "base":

(Note: You can also calculate the area from the lengths of all three sides using Heron's Formula.)

Why is the Area "Half of bh"?

Imagine you "doubled" the triangle (flip it around one of the upper edges) to make a square-like shape (it would be a "parallelogram" actually), THEN the whole area would be bh (that would be for both triangles, so just one is bh), like this:

By slicing the new triangle and moving the sliced part to the other side you get a simple rectangle, whose area is bh.