Talk:Ideas in Geometry/Instructive examples/Proving the Pythagorean Theorem By Picture

I think you guys did a really good job explaining how it would work. But, It would be alittle easier to understand this concept if there were pictures. Especially when explaining about how to find the length of the sides of the triangles. How are the two triangles similar? Im confused on how we know that the triangles are all similar? Did it state that they were all rigth triangles, or did you figure out side angle side method? I like the explanation how why the whole square is c^2 and why we need to add the smaller square and the triangles together. It is a helpful explanation

Discussion by Suzie Moon Smoo1244 18:23, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes I agree with Suzie, it would be a lot easier to understand if there were a few different pictures up that illustrated what each of the things that you explain. The explanation is very good, it would just be very well supplemented with illustrations of what you are talking about. Also you should separate the c² from c= hypotenuse towards the middle of the page because it looks like you are writing c²c.

Discussion by Amanda Peterson User:APeterson2012

I really like your explanation. It seems to fit the goal of relating this topic to students, as it describes the approach in an easy to understand way that would allow someone who is not in the class to understand what is being solved. Not to keep on repeating the same thing as the above posts, but a picture definitely would help a lot, as it would illustrate the way that you went about it through visuals, which may help certain people learn more clearly. Some people learn well through explanation, but many learn through seeing how its done. Overall, this explanation is very well done.

Discussion by Tim McCormick TMcCormick31 00:05, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

I also think your explanation is well done. It would be easier to follow if the picture were accompanying the explanation ( like everyone else said), but this would make the explanation even stronger. A step by step drawing would really work well with this one.Molly.mueller12 00:27, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

I think you guys had a thorough explanation and it was very easy to follow. I liked how you wrote out the equation to show that the figure contained parts that proved the Pythagorean Theorem. However, I do think that some pictures or diagrams would be a nice addition to the page because it would help to have a visual representation of the numbers you are discussing. Discussion by Marissa Eisen [{User:Mae8202}] Bold text