#  >> K-12 >> K-12 Basics

How to Figure Out the Angles of a Scalene Triangle

Triangles are categorized by the number of equal side lengths or the measure of the interior angles. There are three types of triangles: Equilateral, Isosceles and Scalene. Equilateral triangles have all equal sides and angle measures, Isosceles triangles have two equal angle measures and Scalene triangles have no equal sides or angle measures. The sum of all three angles in a triangle must equal 180 degrees, so by using known information you can find the value of the interior angles of all three types of triangles.

Things You'll Need

  • Protractor
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Add up the two known angles of a Scalene triangle and subtract them from 180 to find the measure of the third angle. Because all three angles of a triangle have to add up to 180 degrees, subtracting two known angles from 180 will reveal the missing measurement. For example, if you know the measure of angle A is 75 and the measure of angle B is 60, add them together to get 135, then subtract 135 from 180 to find the missing angle measure of 45 degrees.

    • 2

      Use the measurement of supplementary angles to find the measure of the interior angles of a Scalene triangle. Supplementary angles add up to 180 degrees; therefore, if you know the measure of the external angle, you can subtract that measurement from 180 to reveal the measurement of the interior angle of the Scalene triangle. For example, if the external angle measures 130 degrees, subtract that from 180 and find that the measure of the interior angle of the Scalene triangle is 50 degrees.

    • 3

      Measure each angle of the Scalene triangle using a protractor. If you do not know the measure of any of the interior angles or the measure of any of the exterior angles, use a protractor to measure each individual angle. You could also just measure two of the angles, add them up and subtract them from 180 to find the third angle. Just be sure after measuring the three angles that when you add them together they total 180 degrees.

Learnify Hub © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved