Lesson Explainer: Pythagorean Inequality Theorem Mathematics • Second Year of Preparatory School

Example 1: Identifying the Type of an Angle in a Triangle Using the Triangle Inequality Theorem

In triangle , . What type of angle is ?

Answer

To apply the Pythagorean inequality, we want to compare the square of a side length to the sum of the squares of the other two side lengths. We can do this by rearranging the inequality; we note that saying that is the same as saying that , so

The Pythagorean inequality then tells us that if is a triangle where , then is an obtuse angle. Hence, is an obtuse angle.

Example 2: Using the Pythagorean Inequality to Classify an Angle

In triangle , . What type of angle is ?

Answer

To apply the Pythagorean inequality, we want to compare the square of a side length to the sum of the squares of the other two side lengths. We can do this by rearranging the inequality. Since we have been asked about the angle at , we want to compare the size of the square of the length opposite vertex to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides.

The side opposite vertex is so we want to isolate the square of the length of this side in the inequality. We add to both sides of the inequality to get

Then, we rewrite the inequality as

The Pythagorean inequality gives us information about the measure of the angle at this shared vertex. In particular, since is smaller than , it tells us that is an acute angle.

Example 3: Finding the Largest Angle in a Triangle from Its Side Lengths

Triangle has side lengths , , and .

1. Determine the angle with the greatest measure in .
2. Determine the type of in terms of its angles.

Answer

Part 1

We start by recalling that the angle with the greatest measure in a triangle is always opposite the longest side. Hence, the angle at has the largest measure.

Part 2

We can apply the Pythagorean inequality theorem to determine the type of angle at . To do this, we recall that the theorem states the following:

• If , then is an obtuse angle.
• If , then is an acute angle.
• If , then is a right angle.

We have and

Hence, and the angle at is acute. We know that is the angle with the largest measure in the triangle, so all of the angles in the triangle are acute.

Therefore, is an acute triangle.

Example 4: Using the Pythagorean Inequality and Given Side Lengths to Classify an Angle

Consider , with , , and . What kind of triangle is this, in terms of its angles?

Answer

We first note that the largest angle will be opposite the largest side, so angles and must be smaller than . Hence, we only need to determine the type of the angle at to determine the type of triangle .

We then recall that we can determine the type of triangle in terms of its angles by using the Pythagorean inequality theorem which states the following:

• If , then is an obtuse angle.
• If , then is an acute angle.
• If , then is a right angle.

We note that

So,

This means that the angle at is an acute angle. Hence, is an acute triangle.

Example 5: Using the Pythagorean Inequality and Given Side Lengths to Classify a Triangle

If is a triangle whose side lengths are 11 cm, 26.4 cm, and 28.6 cm and it is similar to a triangle , determine the type of in terms of its angles.

Answer

We start by recalling that two triangles are similar if their corresponding angles are equal, so we can determine the type of triangle by finding the type of triangle .

Taking , , and , we recall that the Pythagorean inequality theorem tells us that for triangle , the following holds:

• If , then is an obtuse angle.
• If , then is an acute angle.
• If , then is a right angle.

Since is the longest side, angle is the largest angle in ; identifying its type will therefore allow us to identify the type of in terms of its angles.

We have

Since these are equal, we can conclude that the angle at is a right angle and that is a right triangle. Finally, since triangle is similar to , we must also have that it is a right triangle.

Example 6: Determining Whether a Triangle is Obtuse or Acute Based on a Diagram

Determine the type of in terms of its angles.

Answer

We start by recalling that we can determine whether an angle in a triangle of known lengths is acute or obtuse by using the Pythagorean inequality theorem. We cannot apply this directly since we do not know . To find , we first want to determine the type of triangle ; we can do this by noting that

Since these are equal, we must have that is a right triangle, where the right angle is at since this is opposite the hypotenuse.

We can then note that is a line from the vertex which bisects the opposite side. In other words, is a median of the triangle. We can then recall that a median of a right triangle at the right angle will always have length equal to half the hypotenuse, so

We then see that is half of , so

This gives us the following.

We can now determine the type of each angle using the Pythagorean inequality identity. However, we can simplify this process slightly by noting that is an angle in a right triangle, so it is acute and is smaller than , which is a right angle, so it is also acute. Alternatively, we could note that triangle is an isosceles triangle so the angles at and are the same.

Finally, we can determine the type of the angle at by comparing the square of the side length opposite to to the sum of the squares of the two other sides. We have

Thus,

Hence, is an acute triangle.

Example 7: Determining a Triangle Type in a Parallelogram

is a parallelogram. If , , and , what is the type of ?

Answer

Let’s start by sketching the information we are given. We recall that a parallelogram has parallel opposite sides. We have the following.

We see that is an isosceles triangle.

We now recall that the angle with the greatest measure will be opposite the longest side, so the angles at and will be the largest.

We can check the relative size of the angles by using the Pythagorean inequality theorem which states the following:

• If , then is an obtuse angle.
• If , then is an acute angle.
• If , then is a right angle.

In our triangle, we have

Hence, , and so is an acute angle.

Therefore, is an acute triangle.