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Questions tagged [triangles]

For questions about properties and applications of triangles.

312 votes
10 answers
52k views

V.I. Arnold says Russian students can't solve this problem, but American students can -- why?

In a book of word problems by V.I Arnold, the following appears: The hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle (in a standard American examination) is $10$ inches, the altitude dropped onto it is 6 ...
Eli Rose's user avatar
  • 8,231
144 votes
10 answers
22k views

Is the blue area greater than the red area?

Problem: A vertex of one square is pegged to the centre of an identical square, and the overlapping area is blue. One of the squares is then rotated about the vertex and the resulting overlap is red. ...
Mr Pie's user avatar
  • 9,487
132 votes
4 answers
23k views

What is the probability that a point chosen randomly from inside an equilateral triangle is closer to the center than to any of the edges?

My friend gave me this puzzle: What is the probability that a point chosen at random from the interior of an equilateral triangle is closer to the center than any of its edges? I tried to draw ...
terrace's user avatar
  • 2,017
100 votes
14 answers
66k views

Different proofs of the Pythagorean theorem?

The Pythagorean Theorem is one of the most popular to prove by mathematicians, and there are many proofs available (including one from James Garfield). What's are some of the most elegant proofs? My ...
82 votes
10 answers
29k views

What's a proof that the angles of a triangle add up to 180°?

Back in grade school, I had a solution involving "folding the triangle" into a rectangle half the area, and seeing that all the angles met at a point: However, now that I'm in university, I'm not ...
Joe Z.'s user avatar
  • 6,719
81 votes
10 answers
295k views

Finding out the area of a triangle if the coordinates of the three vertices are given

What is the simplest way to find out the area of a triangle if the coordinates of the three vertices are given in $x$-$y$ plane? One approach is to find the length of each side from the coordinates ...
TSP1993's user avatar
  • 969
61 votes
11 answers
351k views

How to calculate the area of a 3D triangle?

I have coordinates of 3d triangle and I need to calculate its area. I know how to do it in 2D, but don't know how to calculate area in 3d. I have developed data as follows. ...
iamgopal's user avatar
  • 643
47 votes
15 answers
22k views

Do two right triangles with the same length hypotenuse have the same area?

I watched computer monitors and I asked myself, do two monitors with the same display diagonal have the same display area? I managed to find out that the answer is yes, if two right triangles with ...
totymedli's user avatar
  • 529
47 votes
7 answers
5k views

What is the name of this theorem of Jakob Steiner's, and why is it true?

In The Secrets of Triangles a remarkable theorem is attributed to Jakob Steiner. Each side of a triangle is cut into two segments by an altitude. Build squares on each of those segments, and the ...
MBP's user avatar
  • 1,215
45 votes
7 answers
10k views

Is being a right triangle both necessary and sufficient for the Pythagorean Theorem to hold?

I recently encountered a Stack Overflow question (since closed) in which the OP was testing for whether a triangle was right by whether or not it "met" the criteria of the Pythagorean Theorem (i.e. ...
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine's user avatar
44 votes
11 answers
18k views

Probability that 3 points in a plane form a triangle

This question was asked in a test and I got it right. The answer key gives $\frac12$. Problem: If 3 distinct points are chosen on a plane, find the probability that they form a triangle. Attempt 1:...
Serenity's user avatar
  • 834
39 votes
3 answers
91k views

Triangle inequality for subtraction? [duplicate]

Why is $|a - b| \geq|a| - |b|$?
CodeKingPlusPlus's user avatar
38 votes
3 answers
1k views

Crazy fact(?) about circles drawn on base of triangle between cevians: they always fit, no matter what their order?

Take any triangle, and draw any number of cevians from the top vertex to the base, with any spacing between the cevians. In each sub-triangle thus formed, inscribe a circle. Now rearrange the order ...
Dan's user avatar
  • 25.8k
37 votes
6 answers
2k views

If $(a,b,c)$ are the sides of a triangle, what is the probability that $ac>b^2$?

Let $a \le b \le c$ be the sides of a triangle inscribed inside a fixed circle such that the vertices of the triangle are distributed uniformly on the circumference. Question 1: Is it true that the ...
Nilotpal Sinha's user avatar
36 votes
4 answers
26k views

uniform random point in triangle in 3D

Suppose you have an arbitrary triangle with vertices $A$, $B$, and $C$. This paper (section 4.2) says that you can generate a random point, $P$, uniformly from within triangle $ABC$ by the following ...
dsg's user avatar
  • 1,451

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