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without being defined, and are the foundation for more relevant geometric
calculations.
To understand the concept of an angle one must first be familiar with the
above noted components of a line. A point is nothing more than a location in space.
A line consists of a collection of points along a strait path which is continuous is
either direction. It is important to note that a line has not endpoints. A line segment
is a portion of a line that has two end points. A ray is a line with one end which is
continuous in one direction. The fixed end point of a ray is the vertex of an angle.
The rotation about this point is what forms an angle. A full rotation about a vertex is
360. Other important angles are:
o
o
o
o
Right angle: 90
Strait angle: 180
Acute angle: > 90
Obtuse angle: < 90
1.2 Triangles
The triangle is quite possible the
most important and most heavily
studied shape in geometry. A triangle is
a closed shape, with three sides, which
for three angles that have the sum of
180.There are three types of triangles:
scalene, isosceles, and equilateral. A
scalene triangle has no two sides of
Figure 1 Source:mathworld.wolfram.com
equal length. An isosceles triangle has
two sides of equal length and the two angles created at the base of the triangle are
equal to one another. An equilateral triangle has all three sides of equal length and
all of its interior angles are equal to 60. If any two angles of a triangle are know the
third can be found by subtracting the sum of the two known angles from 180.
There is however a fourth type of triangle, the right triangle, and it is the
most useful in geometry. A right triangle has one angle of 90. The side of the
triangle opposite to the 90 angle is called the hypotenuse, and the other two sides
are referred to as legs.
1.2.1 Perimeter of a Triangle
The perimeter of any shape is the sum of the lengths of all of its sides. If the
three sides of a triangle can be considered as side A, side B, and side C then the
formula for the perimeter of any triangle can be expressed as:
P= A+ B+C .
A=BH
or
1
A= BH .
2
Any
shape of triangle with the same base and height will therefore have the same area.
Another principle equation for calculating the area of a triangle is the Heros
formula. The Heros formula can only be applied when the length of all three sides
of the triangle is known and the triangle contains no right angles. The Heros
formula is expressed as: A= s( sa)(sb)(sc ) , where a, b, and c are the sides
of the triangle and
1
s= (a+b+ c) .
2
1.3 Quadrilaterals
Briefly noted above, quadrilaterals are closed shapes with four sides that
form four interior angles. There are three types of quadrilaterals: the parallelogram,
the rectangle, and the trapezoid. A parallelogram is a shape where opposite sides
are equal in length, parallel to one another, and do not form any right angles. A
rectangle is simply a parallelogram where intersecting sides meet at right angles, or
are perpendicular to one another. A rectangle whose sides are all of equal length is
known as a square. A trapezoid is a quadrilateral that only has two sides which are
parallel to one another.
1.3.1 Area and Perimeter of Quadrilaterals
For any shape perimeter calculations are always the same; the sum of the
length of all its side. This calculation has been previously discussed for triangle and
will not be explored in this section.
There is a set of four equations for finding the area of any quadrilateral:
A=lw
A=bh
1
A= h (b1 +b 2)
2
b1
and
b2
1.4 Circles
The final shaped discussed in this section of the report will be circles. Before
going into the calculations associated with circles there are a few important things
to note about the shape. Firstly, all points of a circle are equal distance from its
center. The distance from the circles center to a point on the circle is referred to as
the radius. The distance greatest distance from point to point, that crosses the circle
center point, is known as the diameter. The diameter can be thought of as twice the
radius,
d=2 r .
c=2 r
or
c=d
A= r
or
d2
A=
2 , again where r is the radius and d is the
diameter.
y 1 , y 2 , y3 y 4
respectively and we consider the distance between the parallel lines to be h then
the equation derived for the shapes area is:
h
h
h
h
h
A ( y 0+ y 1) + ( y 1 + y 2 ) + ( y 2+ y 3 )+ ( y n2 + y n1 ) + ( y n1+ y n)
2
2
2
2
2
h
A ( y 0 +2 y 1+2 y 2 +2 y n1+ y n) .
2
h
A= ( y 0 + 4 y 1+ 2 y 2 + 4 y 3 +2 y n 2 + 4 y n1+ y n) .
3
A= ydx
a
or
A= f ( x ) dx . This
a
equation is suitable for calculating areas vertically, however, when a curve is such
that the area must be calculated horizontally then the x-coordinate becomes the
length of each line and the distance y is its width so the equation for finding the
b
area becomes:
A= xdy
a
or
A= g ( y ) dy .
a
dy
or
V = y dx = [f ( x ) ]2 dx
2
for volumes
V = x2 dy= [f ( x ) ]2 dy
a
V =2 xydx
a
*Note: Depending on known sides and angles of the given triangle the other
respective trigonometric functions
5.0 Centroids
In mathematics, particularly mechanics, the
centroid is an objects center of mass. Before
discussing centroids we must first become familiar
with the concept of moments. A moment is the
tendency of an object to rotate about a point. Since
a moment is force it can be calculated by multiplying
its mass times a distance from or
F=md .
Figure 5 Source:
Washington p. 793
,e ,
= l/l i .
inerial forces vL
=
viscous forces
density, and
is the
Bibliography
[1 A. J. Washington, "Geometry," in Technical Mathmatic 10th Edition, Chicago,
] Peason, 2013, pp. 59-872.
Algonquin College