Sunday 12 April 2009

Corresponding Angles

I have drawn two horizontal lines that you can see on the right so they are parallel. One straight line cuts through them both. Don't be put off if you see fancy words for this line like transversal. The important thing is to follow the maths. You can see that I have labelled two angles x and y caused by the intersections of the parallel lines and the transversal. I hope that you can see that x and y are the same angles, and because they are angles they have units. You have probably heard of degress which are marked by a little zero at the top right hand corner of the number of degrees. Angles can also be measured in radians. Radians are really useful when you get to a deeper level of maths, but for the moment just accept that you need to say what you are talking about and always write degrees or put that zero in the top right hand corner.

The important thing from today's blog is to realise that x and y are the same angles. Once you have done that you need to call them something. Learn to call them corresponding angles and other people will understand you! Well they do correspond or relate to each other as they are the same.

That sums it up.

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