McGraw Hill Integrated II, 2012
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McGraw Hill Integrated II, 2012 View details
3. Proving Triangles Congruent-SSS, SAS
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Exercise 9 Page 358

Calculate the lengths of the sides of the triangles using the Distance Formula.

No, see solution.

Practice makes perfect

To see whether △ MNO and △ QRS are congruent or not, let's find the length of the sides. First we can graph both triangles on the same coordinate plane using the given vertices.

Since we know the coordinates of the vertices, we can use the Distance Formula to find the length of the sides. Let's start with finding MN.
MN=sqrt((x_N-x_M)^2+(y_N-y_M)^2)
MN=sqrt(( -1- 0)^2+( -4-( -1))^2)
Simplify right-hand side
MN=sqrt((-1-0)^2+(-4+1))^2)
MN=sqrt((-1)^2+(-3)^2)
MN=sqrt(1+9)
MN=sqrt(10)
We can find the length of the other sides in a similar way. Before we find the lengths, notice that the exercise asks about the congruence in a specific order. △ MNO? ≅△ QRS This means that we need to check the lengths between the corresponding sides to see if each segment is congruent.
Corresponding Sides Distance Formula Result
MN and QR sqrt((-1-0)^2+(-4-(-1))^2) ? = sqrt((4-3)^2+(-4-(-3))^2) sqrt(10)≠ sqrt(2)
NO and RS sqrt((-4-(-1))^2+(-3-(-4))^2) ? = sqrt((3-4)^2+(3-(-4))^2) sqrt(10)≠ sqrt(50)
OM and SQ sqrt((0-(-4))^2+(-1-(-3))^2) ? = sqrt((3-3)^2+(-3-3)^2) sqrt(20)≠ sqrt(36)

Since none of the side lengths of △ MNO match any of the side lengths of △ QRS, the triangles are not congruent. △ MNO≆△ QRS