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beaver82
 
 

Question - Similar Right Triangles

by beaver82 Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:50 pm

What are all the ways you can determine that two triangles are similar:

For instance.

They share 2 identical angles.
JonathanSchneider
ManhattanGMAT Staff
 
Posts: 370
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:40 pm
 

by JonathanSchneider Wed Nov 19, 2008 9:28 pm

Alternately, you could see that one is inside the other, where the smaller one shares two of the same sides (though of shorter length) and has a base that is parallel to the base of the larger triangle.

Or, you can have a right triangle that is cut at the right angle by a line that extends to connect to the opposite side at another right angle. In this case, the large triangle and the two smaller (cut) triangles are all similar.