NAME

DATE

BAND

SIMILAR RIGHT TRIANGLES #2: THE BACKWARDS QUESTION

ADV GEOMETRY | PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE

Were going to be thinking backwards. Before we were given angles, and asked to come up with missing sides.
Now were going to flipflop that, and be given sides and look for angles.
1. I want you to use what you know about similar triangles and the Platonic Right Triangles book to come
up with the missing angle. (You dont need a protractor, even, so dont use it!) Explain how you did it, so
that someone who is confused about how to find this missing angle can understand your thought
process.

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2. Practice! Find the missing angle (which is marked)!

(a)

(b)

(b)

(d)

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(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

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(j)

(i)

3. In order to find missing angles in a right triangle, we need (circle any of the below that apply)
only one leg
only the hypotenuse
only one leg and the hypotenuse
only both legs

4. If I had to succinctly write a conclusion from the previous question, I could write:
In order to find the missing angles in a right triangle, we merely need any ________________________
_______________________________.

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Lets summarize how we can figure out the missing angles given two sides
Situation A: Given the hypotenuse and the leg opposite to the angle were looking for

leg opposite of angle given triangle

hypotenuse given triangle

leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle

hypotenuse Platonic right triangle

1.5954 leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle

=
3.0976
1
0.5150 leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle

That matches the right triangle with the 31o angle!

Important Idea:
For any right triangle with a 31o angle, no matter how big or small the triangle is, we always know that:
leg opposite the 31 degree angle
0.5150
hypotenuse

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Situation B: Given the hypotenuse and the leg adjacent to the angle were looking for
Given the triangle on the right, we know we can find the appropriate similar
triangle (and hence the missing angle) in the Platonic Right Triangles book by
finding the ratio of the given leg with the hypotenuse:
leg adjacent to angle given triangle
hypotenuse given triangle

leg adjacent to angle Platonic right triangle

hypotenuse Platonic right triangle

3.4188 leg adjacent to angle Platonic right triangle

=
3.0222
1
0.4695 leg adjacent to angle Platonic right triangle

And then we look for the triangle in the Platonic Right Triangles book which
has the leg next to the angle with length 0.4695.
That matches the right triangle with the 62o angle!

Important Idea:
For any right triangle with a 62o angle, no matter how big or small this triangle is, we always know that:
leg adjacent to 62 degree angle
0.4695
hypotenuse

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Situation C: Given the leg opposite to, and the leg adjacent to, the angle were looking for.
There are a couple ways to find the missing angle!

Method 1:
You could have indeed used the Pythagorean Theorem to find the hypotenuse
h 2 (0.5825) 2 + (0.6469) 2
=
h 2 = 0.75778586
h 0.8705
And now that we have the hypotenuse, we can use

or

And now we can go through the process we did in Situation A or Situation B.

Situation A:
leg adjacent to angle given triangle
hypotenuse given triangle

Situation B:
leg adjacent to angle Platonic right tri leg opposite the angle given triangle leg opposite of angle Platonic right tri
=
=
hypotenuse Platonic right triangle
hypotenuse given triangle
hypotenuse Platonic right triangle

0.6469 leg next to angle Platonic right triangle

=
0.8705
1
leg adjacent to angle Platonic right triangle 0.7431

0.5825 leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle

=
0.8705
1
leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle 0.6692

Corresponds to the 42o triangle

Corresponds to the 42o triangle

This is definitely a more involved problem than the previous two! We

had to first use the Pythagorean theorem to find the hypotenuse. Then
we had to do a ratio of sides, involving the hypotenuse we found.

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Method 2:

We could also have done a ratio of sides straightaway.

leg opposite the angle given triangle
leg next to the angle given triangle

leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle

leg next to the angle Platonic right triangle

0.5825 leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle

=
0.6469 leg next to the angle Platonic right triangle
0.9004

leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle

leg next to the angle Platonic right triangle

Ugh! What was nice before was that our Platonic triangle had a hypotenuse of 1. Thus the previous problems
(Situation A and Situation B) were easier!
But we can still do this! If we start dividing

leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle

leg next to the angle Platonic right triangle

in the Platonic Right Triangles

book, we find that the 42o triangle works! (Yes, this involves so so so much guessing and checking to find the
right triangle!)

leg opposite of angle Platonic right triangle

0.6691
=
0.9004
leg adjacent to the angle Platonic right triangle 0.7431

This method was easier than the first method because we didnt have to
find the hypotenuse.
This method was harder than the first method because we had to look
through the Platonic Right Triangles book and divide a whole bunch of
leg lengths.

Important Idea:
For any right triangle with a 42o angle, no matter how big or small the triangle is, we always know that:
leg opposite the 42 degree angle
0.9004
leg adjacent to the 42 degree angle
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Tying together Situation A, Situation B, and Situation C

Its clear that central to everything weve been doing with right triangles involves ratio of sides. Lets remember
our Platonic triangles! All similar triangles look the same. Thus the sides are in proportion to each other.
Open the Geogebra file titled Ratio of Sides of a Right Triangle (on the Course Conference).
5. Use the slider to pick an angle. Change the size of the triangle big and small and big and small!
Notice all the side lengths change. But what doesnt change? The ratio of the sides. Thats because even
though the triangle is change its size, all these triangles are similar!

6. We saw in Situation A, Situation B, and Situation C, the ratio of sides of a right triangle are important to
determine angles in a right triangle. The ratios we used were:
leg opposite of angle
hypotenuse

leg adjacent to the angle

hypotenuse

leg opposite of angle

leg adjacent to the angle

And in the geogebra applet you just used, you saw that these ratios were fixed for each Platonic Right
Triangle no matter how big or small the triangles were!
Use the applet to find me the Platonic Right Triangle that has:
(a)

leg opposite of angle

0.4848
hypotenuse

(b)

leg opposite of angle

0.8387
hypotenuse

(c)

leg adjacent to the angle

0.8480
hypotenuse

(d)

leg adjacent to the angle

0.9976
hypotenuse

(e)

leg opposite of angle

2.0503
leg adjacent to the angle

(f)

leg opposite of angle

0.3249
leg adjacent to the angle

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Drawing Connections
7. Explain why in a 45-45-90 triangle,

leg opposite the 45 degree angle

=1
leg adjacent to the 45 degree angle

(a picture of this triangle will be helpful!)

8. Explain why in a 39-51-90 triangle,

leg adjacent to 51 degree angle leg opposite the 39 degree angle

=
hypotenuse
hypotenuse

(a picture of this triangle will be helpful!)

9. Find the equation of this line which makes a 37 o with the x-axis. Explain your thinking!
(The Platonic Right Triangles will be helpful!)

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10. Heres the thing: Each of these ratios correspond uniquely to a single angle. You know that this ratio will
be true for all similar right triangles with that angle.
Instead of using the Platonic Right Triangles, check out this Table of Right Triangle Ratios.
The entire 89 page book is now encapsulated in this succinct table!
Angle
(degree)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42

leg opposite of angle

hypotenuse

leg adjacent to the angle

hypotenuse

leg opposite of angle

leg adjacent to the angle

0.0175
0.0349
0.0523
0.0698
0.0872
0.1045
0.1219
0.1392
0.1564
0.1736
0.1908
0.2079
0.2250
0.2419
0.2588
0.2756
0.2924
0.3090
0.3256
0.3420
0.3584
0.3746
0.3907
0.4067
0.4226
0.4384
0.4540
0.4695
0.4848
0.5000
0.5150
0.5299
0.5446
0.5592
0.5736
0.5878
0.6018
0.6157
0.6293
0.6428
0.6561
0.6691

0.9998
0.9994
0.9986
0.9976
0.9962
0.9945
0.9925
0.9903
0.9877
0.9848
0.9816
0.9781
0.9744
0.9703
0.9659
0.9613
0.9563
0.9511
0.9455
0.9397
0.9336
0.9272
0.9205
0.9135
0.9063
0.8988
0.8910
0.8829
0.8746
0.8660
0.8572
0.8480
0.8387
0.8290
0.8192
0.8090
0.7986
0.7880
0.7771
0.7660
0.7547
0.7431

0.0175
0.0349
0.0524
0.0699
0.0875
0.1051
0.1228
0.1405
0.1584
0.1763
0.1944
0.2126
0.2309
0.2493
0.2679
0.2867
0.3057
0.3249
0.3443
0.3640
0.3839
0.4040
0.4245
0.4452
0.4663
0.4877
0.5095
0.5317
0.5543
0.5774
0.6009
0.6249
0.6494
0.6745
0.7002
0.7265
0.7536
0.7813
0.8098
0.8391
0.8693
0.9004

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43
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70
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72
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77
78
79
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81
82
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84
85
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87
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89

0.6820
0.6947
0.7071
0.7193
0.7314
0.7431
0.7547
0.7660
0.7771
0.7880
0.7986
0.8090
0.8192
0.8290
0.8387
0.8480
0.8572
0.8660
0.8746
0.8829
0.8910
0.8988
0.9063
0.9135
0.9205
0.9272
0.9336
0.9397
0.9455
0.9511
0.9563
0.9613
0.9659
0.9703
0.9744
0.9781
0.9816
0.9848
0.9877
0.9903
0.9925
0.9945
0.9962
0.9976
0.9986
0.9994
0.9998

0.7314
0.7193
0.7071
0.6947
0.6820
0.6691
0.6561
0.6428
0.6293
0.6157
0.6018
0.5878
0.5736
0.5592
0.5446
0.5299
0.5150
0.5000
0.4848
0.4695
0.4540
0.4384
0.4226
0.4067
0.3907
0.3746
0.3584
0.3420
0.3256
0.3090
0.2924
0.2756
0.2588
0.2419
0.2250
0.2079
0.1908
0.1736
0.1564
0.1392
0.1219
0.1045
0.0872
0.0698
0.0523
0.0349
0.0175

0.9325
0.9657
1.0000
1.0355
1.0724
1.1106
1.1504
1.1918
1.2349
1.2799
1.3270
1.3764
1.4281
1.4826
1.5399
1.6003
1.6643
1.7321
1.8040
1.8807
1.9626
2.0503
2.1445
2.2460
2.3559
2.4751
2.6051
2.7475
2.9042
3.0777
3.2709
3.4874
3.7321
4.0108
4.3315
4.7046
5.1446
5.6713
6.3138
7.1154
8.1443
9.5144
11.4301
14.3007
19.0811
28.6362
57.2899

Super Duper Important Conclusion: This table of values is simply a different way of writing the information in
the Platonic Right Triangles book.
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11. Practice with these ratios!

Redo these problems youve solved before, but this time using the Table of Right Triangle Ratios! Show you
work! Round to three decimal places.

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(for the following, use the Table of Right Triangle Ratios to find the missing angle to the nearest degree!)

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12. Up until now, we have only considered integer angle measures. But it turns out that we could make a
more detailed Table of Right Triangle Ratios. They exist! An example:
Angle
(degree)
37.0
37.1
37.2
37.3
37.4
37.5
37.6
37.7
37.8
37.9
38.0
38.1
38.2
38.3
38.4
38.5
38.6
38.7
38.8
38.9

leg opposite of angle

hypotenuse

leg adjacent to the angle

hypotenuse

leg opposite of angle

leg adjacent to the angle

0.6018
0.6032
0.6046
0.6060
0.6074
0.6088
0.6101
0.6115
0.6129
0.6143
0.6157
0.6170
0.6184
0.6198
0.6211
0.6225
0.6239
0.6252
0.6266
0.6280

0.7986
0.7976
0.7965
0.7955
0.7944
0.7934
0.7923
0.7912
0.7902
0.7891
0.7880
0.7869
0.7859
0.7848
0.7837
0.7826
0.7815
0.7804
0.7793
0.7782

0.7536
0.7563
0.7590
0.7618
0.7646
0.7673
0.7701
0.7729
0.7757
0.7785
0.7813
0.7841
0.7869
0.7898
0.7926
0.7954
0.7983
0.8012
0.8040
0.8069

(a) What is the missing angle in this triangle rounded to the nearest tenth of a degree?

(b) Find the two missing sides (rounded to three decimal places):

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(c) Find the two missing sides (rounded to three decimal places)::

(d) Find the two missing sides (rounded to three decimal places):

13. Write down three pairs of complementary angles (and fill in the ratios from the large Table of Right
Triangle Ratios) to create a Mini-Table of Right Triangle Ratios
Angle
(degree)

leg opposite of angle

hypotenuse

leg adjacent to the angle

hypotenuse

Come up with a conjecture based on these observations.

Explain why your conjecture will always be true!

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