Dad, would youhelp me with my math homework in the morning

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Shudder shudder
gulp

Well maybe it won’t be so tough.

Oh Oh

Now I’m just pretty sure this is Geometry.
Congruent triangles…Yeah I remember hearing about them in class about 40 years ago.
But this postulate thing.
Didn’t Dave get sent to the principals office for saying that outloud in biology class? Yeah I think that was it.

So OK where can I get some quick help remembering WTF this stuff is?

2

Postulate is just math geekspeak for a rule.

Congruence of triangles …

SSS - If all 3 sides are congruent, then the triangles are congruent.
SAS - If adjacent side, angle, and side are congruent, then the triangles are congruent.
ASA - If adjacent angle, side, and angle are congruent, then the triangles are congruent.

IIRC, for these types of problems the will give you measures on the 2 triangles. The idea is to know which are significant in determining congruency.
hope that helped :slight_smile:

3

G-o-o-g-l-e searches will provide assloads of pedagogical support for desperate parents and students from k-8, 9-12 and college.

Of course, the brat’s wee textbook may render an actual clue or two.

4

I shelled out bux for a copy of my son’s math text (in use for grades 6-8) to keep at home. I can’t make hide nor hair of the silly thing.

Of course, math had me in tears daily from about 5th grade on (straight As everywhere else, but I flunked the hell out of some math classes) so this is probably just a personal problem.

5

Translating further:

  1. Do you know all three sides of both triangles? If so, you can tell whether the triangles are congruent (i.e. could be superimposed) by the SSS rule.
  2. Do you know two sides and the intervening angle (i.e. the angle between the known sides) of both triangles? If so, bingo, SAS rule to the rescue.
  3. Do you know two angles and the intervening sides of both triangles? Paydirt if yes, thanks to ASA.

Any of those three metrics will exactly define a triangle, e.g. a triangle with one unique set of three sides must have three unique angles. Other metrics don’t, f’rinstance knowing all three angles tells you nothing about how big the SOB is.

6

It sounds like really bad weather to me.

Mayhaps the OP meant whether?

And so ends my contribution to this thread. Being essentially math illiterate, my work here is done.
:slight_smile:

7

Remember, angle/ side /side is NOT valid

8

Actually, a “postulate” is an assumption or axiom, as opposed to something that’s been proved or deduced. I think maybe the quoted homework is misusing the word.

9

You know, I did some volunteer tutoring awhile ago. They used to try to stick me with the math stuff, which was difficult because they do everything differently now! Even if I know how to do a problem, I have to try to figure out how to do it their way. Math is hard.

10

It sounds like I am going to have to get my daughter a doctor’s note to get out of math when she gets to be that age.

11

Hey I never thought of that. :smiley:

12

Due to a previous early morning appointment Sarah had to fend for herself on her homework assignment.
We’ll discuss triangles before she goes to school this morn.
thanks again
just

13

I had trouble with math since the 3rd grade. My solution: join the military.

But I doubt that will help you.

14

Not necessarily valid. Given angle A, side b (adjacent to A) and side a (adjacent to b; opposite A), the triangle is unique if a > b, and ambiguous if a < b.