Lesson Plan

Standard: 7.G.2 Draw (freehand, with a ruler and protractor, and with technology)
geometric shapes with given conditions. Focus on constructing triangles from three
measures of angles or sides, noticing when the conditions determine a unique
triangle, more than one triangle, or no triangle.

Objective:
1. I can draw a geometric shape with specific conditions.
2. I can construct a triangle when given three measurements: 3 side lengths, 3
angle measurements, or a combination of side and angle measurements.
3. I can determine when three specific measurements will result in one unique
triangle, more than one possible triangle, or no possible triangle.
Lesson Procedures/Modeling
Teacher will check students prior knowledge by asking about triangles. Some
questions to consider:

What is a triangle? (a closed plane figure having three sides and three angles)
What are the parts of a triangle? (Vertex, Base, Hypotenuse)
Can you name any specific kinds of triangles?
What must the sum of the angle measurements must equal for a triangle?

Warm-up
Students will draw certain triangles given specific conditions. I'll go over the
problems on the board if time permits.
Activity
Students will be given strips (Linguini) and worksheet where they will be asked to
make triangles given certain conditions. From there, they will deduce the triangle
inequality.

The triangle inequality states that:

That is, the sum of the lengths of any two sides is larger than the length of the third side.
Assessment

Students will be given a worksheet which will have certain problems that they will
be asked to solve. In addition, there will be a few additional information provided on
the worksheet.

Worksheet
Directions:
Fill in the tables with the required information. Decide if you can
construct the following triangles using linguini (or paper strips)
with the given measurements. In table 2, you'll be required to use
a protractor and straight edge.
Table 1

Side
Shorte
lengths st side

Middle
side

Longes Sum of
t side
the
shortes
t and
middle
sides

Do
these
side
lengths
form a
triangl
e?

5,2,4
5,8,4
3,6,2
8,5,3
Table 2
Angle
Measurements
30,60,90

Sum of all
angles

Does this make

a triangle?

45,45,90
50,100,40

Assessment
Directions for problems 1-3
Two sides of a triangle have the following measures. Find the range or possible
measurements for the third side. Next choose a third side within the range you
provided and construct the following triangle.

1. 9,5

2. 5,8

3. 6,10

Given the following measurements. Find the range or possible measurements for x.
Then choose a measurement within the range and construct the triangle.
4.x,6,12

5. 2x, x+2, 5

6. How do you determine if a set of side lengths could form a triangle?

Triangle Constraints
Up to this point we've been able to construct triangles given certain conditions. We
know that triangle contains 3 angle measurements and 3 side lengths. The real
question is, how much information do we need?
After trial and error it comes down to four type of situations for three numbers:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Three sides.
Two sides and one angle
Two angles and one side
Three angles

Three sides. These determine a triangle, provided they satisfy the triangle inequality.
The triangle inequality says that, to have a triangle, the longest side must be shorter than the sum of
the other two sides.

Two sides and one angle. If the angle is between the two sides (SAS) you definitely get a
triangle every time. This is the easiest way for confused students to see how a whole triangle is
determined by three numbers.
If the side is not between the two angles (SSA; avoid calling it ASS for obvious reasons) you get
zero, one, or two triangles. In the one conditiona unique trianglethe other angle is 90 and
the two sides are the hypotenuse and a leg.

Two angles and one side. As long as the angles add up to less than 180, you get a unique
triangle. Having said that, the ASA situation is easier to construct than SAA. (If you know that the
sum of the angles is 180, though, you can compute the other angle in the SAA situation and get the
easy ASA again.)

Three angles. First, the sum has to be 180. And in that case, you get similar triangles, not
congruent ones. That is, you can have an infinite number of triangles, all the same shape, with the
same set of 3 angles. But they can all be different sizes. No unique, same-shape-same-size
triangles.