Here is isosceles triangle . Its sides and have equal lengths. Angle is . The length of is 5 units.
Reflect triangle across segment . Label the new vertex .
What is the measure of angle ?
What is the measure of angle ?
Reflect triangle across segment . Label the point that corresponds to as .
How long is segment ? How do you know?
What is the measure of angle ?
If you continue to reflect each new triangle this way to make a pattern, what will the pattern look like?
Student Lesson Summary
Earlier, we learned that if we apply a sequence of rigid transformations to a figure, then corresponding sides have equal length and corresponding angles have equal measure. These facts let us figure out things without having to measure them!
For example, here is triangle .
We can reflect triangle across side to form a new triangle:
Because points and are on the line of reflection, they do not move. So the image of triangle is . We also know that:
Angle measures because it is the image of angle .
Segment has the same length as segment .
When we construct figures using copies of a figure made with rigid transformations, we know that the measures of the images of segments and angles will be equal to the measures of the original segments and angles.
Glossary
None
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