Activity-4

TOPIC: Finding a general formula for the area of triangles GRADE LEVEL: 9th Grade OBJECTIVES: Student should be able to use actively isometric paper for drawings. Student should be able to use actively geoboard for construction. Student should be able to find the area of different types of triangles by using the knowledge of the area of a parallogram. Student should be able to produce his strategies on the geoboard to construct the required figures. Student should be paraphrase his findings on his notebook. Student should be able generalize the area formula which he found for the all triangles.

SKILLS: Connection, Reasoning, and Communication, Problem solving abilities PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS: Knowledge of the area of parallelograms. INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS: sometric paper, geoboards, ruler DURATION: 30 min.

EXPLANATON: Triangle is a closed figure consisting of three line segments linked end-to end. We have already know how the area of a parallelogram is measured. By using this knowledge, we measure the area of three types triangle(equilateral,obtuse and right) and find a general area formula for triangles .

Exercise: On your geoboards, 1) Construct an equilateral triangle.By using the knowledge of the parallegram, try to find the area of the equilateral triangle. Solution: Place two equilateral triangle together to form a parellogram. Area of the parallelgoram= ah Observe that area of two equilateral triangles is equal to the area of the parallelogram.So, one of the equilateral triangles area is half of the area of the parallelgram.We see that area of the equilateral triangle is equal to (ah)2 .

2) Construct an right angled- triangle. By using the knowledge of the parallegram, try to find the area of the right angled- triangle. Solution: Place two right angled- triangle to form a parallelogram. Area of the parallelgoram= ah Observe that area of two right angled- triangles is equal to the area of the parallelogram.So, one of right angled-triangles area is half of the area of the parallelgram.We see that area of right angled- triangle is equal to (ah)2 .

3) Construct an obtuse angled- triangle. By using the knowledge of the parallegram, try to find the area of the right angled- triangle.

Solution: Construct an obtuse angled- triangle like this. Draw a perpendicular line from the apex of the triangle to the base. Then we have two rectangle. Area of the left rectangle is equal to ab. Area of the right rectangle is equal to ac. If we take out the colured area from the large rectangle, we get the area of obtuse angled- triangle. This means that Area of the obtuse angled- triangle is equal to a(b+c))( (ab)2 +( ac)2) This is equal to a( b+c)2

Draw your figures on your isometric papers and write your findings on your notebook.

After reaching the area of the three triangle, find a general formula for the area of all triangles.

Solution:

Note: Any side can be a base, but every base has only one height.The height is the line from the opposite vertex and perpendicular to the base.The illustiration below shows how any leg of the triangle can be abase and the heighrt always extends from the vertex of the opposite side and is perpendicular to the base.

The picture below shows you that the height can be actually extend outside of the triangle.So tecnically the height does not necessarily intersect with the base.

PROBLEM: If the perimeter of an equilateral triangle is 18 and its area is 15.6 square units, What is the measure of its height?Also, does it matter which side you choose as your base? Solution: Since this is an equilateral triangle and we know its perimeter is 18, we can figure out that each side has alenght of 6(18/3=6).It does not matter which base we choose, Since all 3 heights in an equilateral are congruent. Area= (base)(height) =15.6(6)(h) 15.6 =3h h =15.6/3 =5.2 OBSERVATON: Observe your students and decide in which points they have difficulty.

The problem can be given a quiz.