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Ailles Rectangle

The document describes Doug Ailles' original rectangle, which can be used to readily solve for the side lengths in a 15-75-90 triangle. The rectangle depicts triangles with rational angle measures in degrees and side lengths containing at most one square root of a rational or quadratic irrational. Any right triangle satisfying these two properties is similar to one shown in the Ailles rectangle.

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421 views1 page

Ailles Rectangle

The document describes Doug Ailles' original rectangle, which can be used to readily solve for the side lengths in a 15-75-90 triangle. The rectangle depicts triangles with rational angle measures in degrees and side lengths containing at most one square root of a rational or quadratic irrational. Any right triangle satisfying these two properties is similar to one shown in the Ailles rectangle.

Uploaded by

ultimate3
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Ailles Rectangle
(pronounced ALES, like the drinks) Notes: Pictured above is Doug Ailles original rectangle1. The rectangle permits one to readily solve for the side lengths in a 157590 triangle. Every triangle depicted in the Ailles rectangle has: (1) rational angle measures (in degrees equivalently rational multiples of in radians) and (2) side lengths each containing at most one square root (rationals or quadratic irrationals). Every right triangle satisfying (1) and (2) is similar to one depicted in the Ailles rectangle2 !
1D.S. Ailles, Triangles and trigonometry, Mathematics Teacher 64 (1971) 562. 2J.S. Calcut, Grade school triangles, American Mathematical Monthly 117 (2010) 673685;

available at http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/jcalcut/papers.htm.

Jack S. Calcut Oberlin College October 2010 [email protected]

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