## Thursday, December 17, 2015

### Dimentional Change Questions III: Similar Shapes

There are numerous similar triangle questions on Mathcounts.

Here are the basics:

If two triangles are similar, their corresponding angles are congruent and their corresponding sides will have the same ratio or proportion.

Δ ABC and ΔDEF are similar. $$\frac{AB}{DE}$$ = $$\frac{AC}{DF}$$ = $$\frac{BC}{EF}$$= their height ratio = their perimeter ratio.

Once you know the linear ratio, you can just square the linear ratio to get the area ratio and cube the linear ratio to get the volume ratio.

Practice Similarity of Triangles here.  Read the notes as well as work on the practice problems.  There is instant feedback online.

Many students have trouble solving this problem when the two similar triangles are superimposed.

Just make sure you are comparing smaller triangular base with larger triangular base and smaller triangular side with corresponding larger triangular side, etc... In this case:
$$\frac{BC}{DE}$$= $$\frac{AB}{AD}$$ = $$\frac{AC}{AE}$$

Questions to ponder (Solutions below)

#1: Find the area ratio of Δ ABC to trapezoid BCDE to DEGF to FGIH. You can easily get those ratios using similar triangle properties. All the points are equally spaced and line $$\overline{BC}$$// $$\overline{DE}$$ // $$\overline{FG}$$ // $$\overline{HI}$$.

#2: Find the volume of the cone ABC to Frustum BCDE to DEGF to FGIH. Again, you can use the similar cone, dimensional change property to easily get those ratios.Same conditions as the previous question.