McGraw Hill Integrated II, 2012
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McGraw Hill Integrated II, 2012 View details
6. Inequalities in Two Triangles
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Exercise 40 Page 461

Focus on the angles at Q.

Right or obtuse. See solution.

Practice makes perfect

According to the question RT is either greater than RS, or the two segments have the same measure. Let's consider the two possibilities separately.

Case 1: RT=RS

Let's summarize what we know about triangles △ RQT and △ RQS.

Claim Justification
RT≅RS Segments with equal measure are congruent.
QT≅QS RQ is a median, so Q is a midpoint of TS.

Since RS is a common side of triangles △ RQT and △ RQS, the triangles have three pairs of congruent sides. According to the Side-Side-Side (SSS) Congruence Postulate, this means that these two triangles are congruent. △ RQT≅ △ RQS We also know that corresponding angles of congruent triangles are congruent. ∠ RQT≅ ∠ RQS Since ∠ RQT and ∠ RQS form a linear pair, their measures add to 180. If ∠ RQT and ∠ RQS are congruent, this can only happen if both are right angles. The consequence of this is that triangle △ RQT is a right triangle.

Case 2: RT>RS

Let's summarize what we know about triangles △ RQT and △ RQS.

Claim Justification
RT> RS By assumption.
QT≅QS RQ is a median, so Q is a midpoint of TS.

Since RQ is a common side of triangles △ RQT and △ RQS, these triangles have two pairs of congruent sides. This means that we can use the Converse of the Hinge Theorem. RT> RS ⇓ m∠ RQT> m∠ RQS Since ∠ RQT and ∠ RQS form a linear pair, their measures add to 180. If m∠ RQT> m∠ RQS, this can only happen if m∠ RQT>90 and m∠ RQS<90. The consequence of this is that angle ∠ RQT is obtuse, so triangle △ RQT is obtuse.

Summary

Combining the two cases, we can see that if RT is greater or equal to RS, then triangle △ RQT is either obtuse or right.