What is a triangle?
A triangle is a closed figure formed when three line sements intersect each other at their endpoints.
The three dots in the figure represent the intersecting point of each line segment with one another line segment.
A triangle can be of various shapes, some of them are represented below:
Components of a triangle:
A triangle consists of the following three components:
- Sides
- Vertices
- Angles
Consider the following triangle:
The three line segments of the triangle are called its sides. The three sides of the triangle are given by \(AB\), \(BC\) and \(AC\).
The intersecting points of the three line segments of the triangle are called its vertices. The three vertices of the trianlge are \(A\), \(B\) and \(C\).
The sides intersecting at a corner gives rise to an angle. The three angles formed by the triangle are \(\angle ABC\), \(\angle BAC\) and \(\angle ACB\). This can also be denoted as \(\angle A\), \(\angle B\) and \(\angle C\).
Mathematical representation of a triangle:
A triangle is named using its vertices and the symbol used to represent a triangle is \(\Delta\).
Here, the above given triangle is mathematically represented as \(\Delta ABC\).