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  • Tetrahedron

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    Sachin Prakash
    26 views2 pages
    The document provides a geometric proof that the bond angles of a tetrahedral polygon are 109.5 degrees. It does this by constructing a cube with sides of length 2 and joining opposite vertices to form a tetrahedron inside the cube. It then considers the triangle formed by the center of the cube and two vertices, using Pythagorean theorem and properties of the cube to show that the angle is arctan(1/√2), which equals 109.5 degrees.

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    The document provides a geometric proof that the bond angles of a tetrahedral polygon are 109.5 degrees. It does this by constructing a cube with sides of length 2 and joining opposite vertices to form a tetrahedron inside the cube. It then considers the triangle formed by the center of the cube and two vertices, using Pythagorean theorem and properties of the cube to show that the angle is arctan(1/√2), which equals 109.5 degrees.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    26 views2 pages

    Tetrahedron

    Uploaded by

    Sachin Prakash
    The document provides a geometric proof that the bond angles of a tetrahedral polygon are 109.5 degrees. It does this by constructing a cube with sides of length 2 and joining opposite vertices to form a tetrahedron inside the cube. It then considers the triangle formed by the center of the cube and two vertices, using Pythagorean theorem and properties of the cube to show that the angle is arctan(1/√2), which equals 109.5 degrees.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Question: how do i prove (a simply as possible) why the bond angles of a tetrahedral polygon are 109.5 degrees?

    Imagine that you create the tetrahedron by joining opposite vertices on the faces of a cube as in the diagram below. To simplify the arithmetic assume that the cube has sides of length 2.

    Let O be the point at the center of the cube (equidistant from the eight vertices) as in the diagram below. Construct the triangle OPQ.

    Consider the triangle OPQ. Let R be the midpoint of PQ.

    Since the sided of the cube are of length 2, a use of Pythagoras' Theorem gives |PQ| = . Also, since O is at the center of the cube, |OR| = 1. From the diagram the tangent of the angle ROP is . Thus angle QOP = 2 x angle ROP = 2 x arctan( ) = 109.5o

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