


If you know the length of one leg, you know the length of the other leg (legs are congruent).If you know the measure of the hypotenuse, divide the hypotenuse by 2 to find the length of either leg.The length of the hypotenuse, which is the leg times 2, is key to calculating the missing sides: This method takes more time than the square method but is elegant and does not require measuring. Connect the intersections of the arcs and segments.Strike two arcs, one on the line segment and one on the perpendicular bisector.Reset the compass with the point on the intersection of the two line segments and the span of the compass set to your desired length of the triangle's leg.

Use the straightedge to draw the perpendicular bisector by connecting the intersecting arcs.Use the compass to construct a perpendicular bisector of the line segment by scribing arcs from both endpoints above and below the line segment this will produce two intersecting arcs above and two intersecting arcs below the line segment.Open the compass to span more than half the distance of the line segment.Construct a line segment more than twice as long as the desired length of your triangle's leg.You can also construct the triangle using a straightedge and drawing compass: The diagonal becomes the hypotenuse of a right triangle. Half of a square that has been cut by a diagonal is a 45-45-90 triangle. Striking the diagonal of the square creates two congruent 45-45-90 triangles. Construct either diagonal of the square.Construct a square four equal sides to the desired length of the triangle's legs.The easiest way to construct a 45-45-90 triangle is as follows: Knowing these basic rules makes it easy to construct a 45-45-90 triangle. The main rule of 45-45-90 triangles is that it has one right angle and while the other two angles each measure 45 °.The lengths of the sides adjacent to the right triangle, the shorter sides have an equal length.Īnother rule is that the two sides of the triangle or legs of the triangle that form the right angle are congruent in length. We can plug the length of the leg into our 45-45-90 theorem formula:īoth methods produce the same result! 45-45-90 triangle rules Let's use both methods to find the unknown measure: You can also use the general form of the Pythagorean Theorem to find the length of the hypotenuse of a 45-45-90 triangle.
