Thursday, February 23, 2012

Pythagorean Theorem Proof

Given congruent squares P and Q, each of which, containing four congruent right triangles.

Move point A to change the size of the rectangle or point B to change the size of the squares.

This is a Java Applet created using GeoGebra from www.geogebra.org - it looks like you don't have Java installed, please go to www.java.com

Questions
  1. Show that the white quadrilateral in square P is a square. 
  2. Explain why the area of the square in question 1 is equal to the sum of the area of the two white squares in square Q
  3. Explain why the answers in questions 1 and 2 hold regardless of the shape of the triangles. 

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