Math 235 Geometric Mean
Below is right triangle CBA with the altitude of segment BD. Use the hide/show buttons to examine what is true about the three triangles, , , and . When you show each triangle, there will be a blue point (to move the triangle) and a red point (to rotate the triangle).
- What do you notice is true about the three triangles? How did you determine this?
- In this image, the geometric mean would state . Using what you learned from the relationship among the triangles, why is this proportion true?