Polygons, Triangles, and Angles... Oh my!

Today in math class we were able to touch more on polygons and their different classifications. In our previous class (Thursday) we began our discussion of polygons with talking about Quadrilaterals and the different classifications that they fall under. One interesting thing that we talked about was how all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares. This is a statement that people may not believe to be true. It is, in fact, a true statement and here is why: Squares and rectangles are both a part of the quadrilateral family. Each shape has different characteristics, however. Some of the characteristics of one shape are the same as another shape which causes some shapes to be both, for example, a square being a rectangle, but a rectangle cannot be a square. For a rectangle the characteristics for it are: 4 sides, 4 right angles, pairs of opposite sides are equal, and opposite sides are parallel. The characteristics for squares are: 4 equal sides, opposite sides are parallel, and 4 right angles. From looking at the lists of characteristics you can see the overlap that squares have in the rectangle category. To determine what a shape is it must fit every single one of the characteristics that I listed for you, so a square has all the same characteristics that a rectangle does, making it fit into the rectangle family. If you are to look at a rectangle and look at the list of characteristics for a square you will notice that it fits almost all the characteristics, except for having 4 equal sides, just this one thing does not allow rectangles to be squares. Poor rectangles…

Today's lesson focused on triangles which is another member of the polygon family. Triangles can be classified in two different categories, by their angles and by their sides. First, there are acute triangles, all of the angles in these triangles will be less than 90 degrees. Then there are right triangles which will have one right angle. The last classification according to the angle of the triangle is obtuse, which means there is one angle in the triangle that is greater than 90 degrees. There are also three different classifications for the sides of the triangle. The first is equilateral, which means all of the sides on the triangle are equal. The next is isosceles, this type of triangle has at least two sides that are equal in length. The final side classification is scalene which means that all the sides on the triangle are different lengths. To help with understanding of this we made a foldable that includes the different classifications for the triangles, their definitions, and also a picture to go along with each triangle. I'm exciteed to have this reference because this was such a good way to learn about triangles. 

https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/polygons.html