A.

2 GEOMETRY REVIEW

Pythagorean Theorem (A.2 p. 565)

Hypotenuse
c The Pythagorean Theorem is a statement about
Leg right triangles. A right triangle is one that
b contains a right angle, that is, an angle of 90º.
90º The side of the triangle opposite the 90º angle
is called the hypotenuse; the remaining two
Leg
a sides are called legs. In the figure on the left,
we have used c to represent the length of the
hypotenuse and a and b to represent the
lengths of the legs.

Pythagorean Theorem:
In a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the
sum of the squares of the lengths of the legs. Conversely, if the square of
the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the
lengths of the legs of a triangle, then the triangle is a right triangle, where
the 90º angle is opposite the longest side.

c2 = a2 + b2
From this we can derive the following equations:
c = (a 2 + b 2 )
a = (c 2 − b 2 )
b = (c 2 − a 2 )

Example 1
In a right triangle, one leg is of length 4 and the other is of length 3. What is
the length of the hypotenuse?
c = hypotenuse
a=4
b=3
Using the Pythagorean theorem, we know
c2 = a2 + b2
c2 = 42 + 32 = 16 + 9 = 25
c = 25 = 5
Now do Problem 3 on p.569
 Example 2
Verifying That a Triangle is a Right Triangle

Show that a triangle whose sides are of lengths 5, 12, and 13 is a right triangle.
Identify the hypotenuse.

The longest side is the hypotenuse, so if this is a right triangle, then c = 13. We’ll let
a = 5, and b = 12.
Does c2 = a2 + b2?

132 = 52 + 122
169 = 25 + 144
169 = 169 Yes
Therefore the triangle is a right triangle and the side with length 13 is the
hypotenuse.

Now do Problem 11 on p. 569

Example 3

The tallest inhabited building in the world is the Sears Tower in Chicago. F the
observation tower is 1450 feet above ground level, how far can a person standing in
the observation tower see (with the aid of a telescope)? Use 3960 miles for the
radius of Earth.

Solution: A person can only see as far as the horizon limit of the earth. That is the
point at which the line segment from the top of the tower to the earth makes a right
angle with the line segment from the earth to the center of the earth.

We can now apply the Pythagorean theorem to

Di
st a
solve the problem.
nc
ey The farthest distance you can see is one of the
ou
a ca legs of the right triangle, which we’ll call a. The
1450 ft ns
ee hypotenuse is the radius of Earth + the height of
the tower. Let’s convert all units to miles.
Horizon Limit 1450 ft = 1450 ft / 5280 ft/mile ≈ .2746212 miles
Hypotenuse = c = 3960 + .2746212 miles
=
s rth

b = 3960 miles
ile a
m of E

c2 = a2 + b2
60 s
39 adiu

(3960.2746212)2 = a2 + 39602
Center
R

of Earth Solve for a.

a2 = (3960.2746212)2 - 39602
a2 ≈ 2175.08
a ≈ 46.64 miles

A person can see about 47 miles from top of the

1 mile =5280 ft.
tower.
SECTION 1.1 RECTANGULAR COORDINATES; GRAPHING UTILITIES

The modern Cartesian coordinate system in two dimensions (also called a rectangular
coordinate system) is commonly defined by two axes, at right angles to each other,
forming a plane (an xy-plane). The horizontal axis is labeled x, and the vertical axis is
labeled y. All the points in a Cartesian coordinate system taken together form a so-
called Cartesian plane. Equations that use the Cartesian coordinate system are called
Cartesian equations.
The point of intersection, where the axes meet, is called the origin normally labeled O.
The x and y axes define a plane that can be referred to as the xy plane. Given each
axis, choose a unit length, and mark off each unit along the axis, forming a grid. To
specify a particular point on a two dimensional coordinate system, you indicate the x
coordinate first (abscissa), followed by the y coordinate (ordinate) in the form (x,y), an
ordered pair. The choices of letters come from the original convention, which is to use
the latter part of the alphabet to indicate unknown values. The first part of the alphabet
was used to designate known values. Many of the curves studied in classical geometry
can be described as the set of points (x,y) that satisfy some equation f(x,y)=0. In this
way certain questions in geometry can be transformed into questions about numbers
and resolved by means of analytic geometry.

y- axis
3

Quadrant II (x<0,y>0) Quadrant I (x>0,y>0)

2
(3,2)
(-3,1)
1

x- axis
0
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
origin
-1 (0,0)

-2

(-2,-3) (3,-2)
-3

Quadrant III (x<0,y<0) Quadrant IV (x>0,y<0)

-4
FINDING THE DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO POINTS

The distance, d, between two points can be found using the Pythagorean Theorem.

Example 2 p. 5
Find the distance d between points (1,3) and (5,6)
Solution: Create a right triangle by drawing a horizontal line from (1,3) to (5,3) [ since 5
is the x-coordinate of (5,6), and a vertical line from (5,3) to (5,6). The line segment from
(1,3) to (5,6) is the hypotenuse, c. The other line segments are the legs, a and b.
The distance between two points on a horizontal line is just the absolute value of the
difference of their x-coordinates (|x2 – x1|), so the length of a = |5 – 1| = 4. Likewise,
the distance between two points on a vertical line is just the absolute value of the
difference of their y-coordinates (|y2 – y1|), so the length of b = |6 – 3| = 3
From the Pythagorean Theorem, c2 = a2 + b2 = 42+32 = 16+9 = 25
c = 25 = 5

6 (5,6)
5

c b
4

(1,3) a (5,3)
2

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6

DISTANCE FORMULA
The distance between two points P1 = (x1,y1) and P2 = (x2,y2) is

d(P1,P2) = ( x2 − x1 ) 2 + ( y2 − y1 ) 2
Example 3 p.6

Now do problem 21 on p. 10

Example 4 Using Algebra to Solve Geometry Problems

Consider three points A = (-2,1), B = (2,3), and C = (3,1)

a) Plot each point and form triangle ABC.

B = (2,3)
3
y

C = (3,1)
A = (-2,1)
0
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
x

b) Find the length of the three sides of the triangle, AB, BC, and AC
d (A,B) =

d (B,C) =

d(A,C) =

c) The converse of the Pythagorean Theorem says that if square of the

longest side is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, the
triangle is a right triangle. The longest side is 5, so does

5 = 2 5 +
2
( ) ( 5)2 2 ?

25 = 4*5 + 5 = 20 + 5 = 25
Yes it is a right triangle
d) Find the area of the triangle.
The area of a triangle is ½ (base)(height)

If you rotated the triangle to lay on one of it’s legs instead of

the hypotenuse, you can see that the base is AB and the
height is BC (or vice versa). A

(2 5 )( 5 )
So Area = 1
=
2
AB=
= ½ (2)(5) = 5 square units
2 5

Now do problem 39 on p.10

C B
BC = 5

Midpoint Formula

The midpoint M = (x,y) of the line segment from

P1 = (x1,y1) to P2 = (x1,y2) is

⎛ x1 + x2 y1 + y2 ⎞
M = ( x, y ) = ⎜ , ⎟
⎝ 2 2 ⎠
Therefore, to find the midpoint of a line segment, we average the x-
coordinates and the y-coordinates of the endpoints.

Example 5 Do problem 49 on p.10

HOMEWORK
p. 10 Exercises # 1,7,9,17,23,25,35,41,49,55,59
p. 569-70 A.2 Exercises # 8, 13, 39