Math Labs with Activity - Verify the Properties of the Sides and Angles of a Parallelogram

Math Labs with Activity – Verify the Properties of the Sides and Angles of a Parallelogram

OBJECTIVE

To verify the parallelogram properties of the sides and angles of a Parallelogram.

Materials Required

  1. A sheet of white paper
  2. A geometry box
  3. A sheet of tracing paper

Theory
By geometry, we know that in a parallelogram

  1. opposite sides are equal, and
  2. opposite angles are equal.

Procedure
Step 1: Construct a parallelogram ABCD on the sheet of white paper.
Step 2: Draw the diagonal AC of the parallelogram as shown in Figure 20.1.
Math Labs with Activity - Verify the Properties of the Sides and Angles of a Parallelogram 1
Step 3: Trace the ΔABC on the tracing paper. Label the triangle obtained on the tracing paper as ΔA’B’C’. Shade ΔA’B’C’. Rotate the tracing paper and place ΔA’B’C’ over ΔACD as shown in Figure 20.2. Record your observations.
Math Labs with Activity - Verify the Properties of the Sides and Angles of a Parallelogram 2

Observations
We observe that ΔA’B’C’ exactly covers ΔACD.
Therefore, ΔA’B’C’ is congruent to ΔACD and so ΔABC is congruent to ΔACD.
Hence, AB =CD,
BC =AD, and ∠B = ∠D.
(Similarly, we can show that ∠A = ∠C.)
Conclusions We conclude that in a parallelogram, the opposite sides are equal and the opposite angles are equal.

Result
It is verified that in a parallelogram the opposite sides are equal and the opposite angles are equal.

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