Four Triangles Revisited

This Instructional Activity is a part of the Lesson 16, Unit 1, Grade 8. This activity revisits a picture that students have seen earlier and that they will see again later when they investigate the Pythagorean Theorem. The four right triangles around the boundary make a quadrilateral inside which happens to be a square. Since the four triangles surrounding the inner quadrilateral are congruent by construction, this makes the inner shape a rhombus. The angle calculations that students make here justify why it is actually a square.