Vanessa Anguiano

10th grade math

Qualities of a mathematician
Image

Explanation

Make it similar
In this worksheet we were given the
proportions of one triangle, whose sides
have lengths of 2 inches, 3 inches and 4
Inches, and there was another triangle
that is known to be similar to the first one.
One of the sides of the second triangle was
6 inches and we had to figure out which of
those sides was 6 inches.
At first I tried to figure it out by myself but I
didnt quite understand it at first, I just
knew that if you multiply the side thats
two inches by the side that is 3 inches you
get 6 but I didnt know how that helped me
solve the problem, so I figured out that if
you multiply all of the lengths of the sides
of the first triangle by two you get a
second triangle thats proportional/similar
to the first one. The next day my peers
found out that there was more than one
solution to this problem. The second
solution was to time all the lengths of the
sides of the first triangle and the third one
was to divide by two the results you got for
the second solution.
This worksheet really helped me
finding
patterns
because the pattern I found at
the end really made sense, and it was way
easier than I thought it was.

Similarity Notes
Similarity notes is one of the first things
we did when we were first introduced into
similarity, Mr Carter explained to us that
polygons are 2D figures that are closed
with straight edges and in order for two
polygons to be similar their corresponding
angles have to be equal in size and
lengths of their corresponding sides are
proportional ( that is the ratios of the
lengths of corresponding sides are equal)
When we first starting doing this I thought
the way of writing the ratios was really
confusing but then I got the hang of it and
thought it was really easy. So basically all I
had to do was divide the length of one
side of one triangle by the corresponding
side of the other triangle and do that for
all the sides of the polygon, but you
should get the same answer for all of the
sides. Your answer is the scale factor for
both triangles.
This specific worksheet made me

open
my mindset
to the various ways of
solving a problem, in this case how to find
the scale factor and how to tell if two
polygons are similar in a different way,
like of course you still have to make sure
the corresponding sides are equal along
with the angles but finding the ratio was
really useful because I usually stick to one
method for solving a specific topic but this
time it was different.

Proportions Everywhere
This worksheet was also about ratios but
instead of measuring the sides of the
polygons you measure from one point
across to another one and then you do the
same thing for the corresponding point in
the second polygon. Then you have to
divide the corresponding side
measurements of the first one by the
measurement of the second polygon and
do the same thing for your other
proportions, if the answer to those are the
same then your polygons are similar.
This worksheet helped me understand that
finding the ratios of corresponding line
segments is an easier way to figure out if
the corresponding sides of polygons are
proportional, it also
made me question
whether angles are really necessary to
prove that polygons are similar, that
question was later answered by Mr C By
explaining to the class that angles are
important because even though the sides
of a polygon are proportional different
angles can make a completely different
shape.

Triangle similarity theorems

This worksheet was one of the worksheets
that helped me understand similarity the
most, what we had to do was prove if
those triangle theorems were true or false
or if that method was enough to prove if
triangles are similar or not.
Side-Side-Side TheoremMe and my tablemates figured out that
this method was enough to prove that
triangles are similar if all the
corresponding sides are proportional.
Angle-Angle TheoremI knew this theorem was right because as
long as you prove that the corresponding
angles are equal the triangles are similar,
so if you add those two angles together
and subtract them from 180 you get the
third angle of your triangles.
Side-Side TheoremMe and my tablemates prove that this
theorem was false because even if two
sides of the triangle are proportional the
angle of the third side could be different
making a completely different triangle.
The mathematician skill that I practiced
the most throughout this worksheet was
collaborating
with my tablemates,
because especially with the last theorem
because two of the people at our table
were really confused about it so we made
sure to explain what they didnt
understand, we all didnt really
understand this so we worked together to
figure it out.

Similar triangles VS Similar

polygons
In this worksheet we had to come up with
counterexamples for the statements given
to us and explain why we think the
statement is right or not. The first section
of this worksheet was with polygons and
the second section was using triangles.
POLYGONS
Statement 1:
If two polygons have their
corresponding angles equal, then theyre
similar.
The statement above is clearly false
because you could have completely
different shapes even if their
corresponding angles are equal, as
shown in the worksheet a square
and a rectangle are the perfect
example as to why this is false.
Statement 2: I
f two polygons have their
corresponding sides proportional, then the
polygons are similar.
This statement is also false because
the corresponding sides might be
equal but as along as the angles
are different the polygons could be
a completely different shape. As
shown in the worksheet.
TRIANGLES
Statement 1: E
very triangle with two equal
sides has two equal angles.
This statement is true because if
you have to equal sides those sides
are gonna have equal angles, we
prove that by drawing it out as you
can see in the worksheet.
Statement 2: I
f two triangles have their
corresponding angles equal, then the
triangles are similar.

Me and my tablemates proved that

this statement is true because as
long as all the corresponding

angles are equal the triangles are

going to be similar, we werent so
sure about this one until we drew it
out various times.
Statement 3: I
f two triangles have
corresponding sides proportional, then the
triangles are similar.
This statement is true because if all
sides are proportional the angles
are also going to be similar, me
and my tablemates each tried this
on our own by drawing different
triangle with corresponding sides
and the angles always turned out
to be equal as well.
The skill that I practiced the most in this
worksheet was
explaining/justifying
because I had to justify my thinking
visually and verbally as shown in my
worksheet.

Ins and outs of proportions

This worksheet was our introduction to
how to find ratios. My first thought when I
saw all those letters as proportions I said
to myself this is going to be super hard
but later on I realized it was way much
simpler than I imagined.
In order to find the ratios you have to take
a certain line segment from one triangle
and divide it by the corresponding line
segment of your second triangle, then you
have to do that for all of the sides, but
they all have to equal in order to prove
that their corresponding sides are
proportional.
EXAMPLE:
AC/DF = AB/DE = CB/EF =
12/9 = 20/15 = 24/18 =1.3

In this worksheet I believe the skill that I

practiced the most was
experimenting
because at first I had no idea of what I was
doing because I thought the proportions
were super confusing so I would a lot of
weird stuff when all I had to do was plug
in the lengths of the triangles into the
equation I guess.