Question

The question says : use what you learned in the Special Trinagles Geogevra Activity to find the lengths of the sides of these special triangles that are labeled with variables.

Answer 1

The given triangle is a right triangle because one of its angles is 90 degrees. To find the missing length x, we would apply the tangent trigonometric ratio which is expressed as

tan θ = opposite side/adjacent side

From the triangle,

opposite side = 3

adjacent side = x

Thus,

tan 45 = 3/x

By crossmultiplying, we have

xtan45 = 3

x = 3/tan45 = 3/1

x = 3