Pythagorean Theorem and Circles
- Author:
- Andre Mathurin
Connecting Right Triangles & Circles
On Tuesday I asked you to draw, as precisely as possible, a circle on a piece of graph paper whose radius measured 8 units using only a pen. Honestly, nobody really had a good looking circle, although I think it was Gabriel who had a method that produced the best looking circle.
During Thursday's class, all of you were great at staying focused during our in-depth look at a right triangle that was split into two smaller right triangles. The point of that class was to convince you that something mathematically special is happening in a right triangle.
But we started off the week trying to understand circles!
What do right triangles have to do with circles?
Use the applet below to drag point C along the x-axis in either direction and try and make sense of what is happening. Then on a piece of paper, answer the questions below in complete, grammatically correct sentences.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. If you let the radius of a circle be the hypotenuse of a right triangle, then how many right triangles fit inside the circle?
2. How can you use the mathematics of a right triangle to help with drawing, as precisely as possible, a circle whose radius measures 8 units?