Math Question

[JHawkNH]

ioi said:

txags911 said:
I get what you're saying, but that's not a math answer.  That's an observation answer.  Looking at the pictures, they look congruent.  But as you have to make certain assumptions in order to make the statements you're making.  I agree with you that the two specific triangles drawn are almost certainly congruent.  But unless you can prove that two sides and the included angle (or two angles and the included side, or three sides, or three angles) of the two triangles are congruent, you can't say that the triangle is definitively congruent from a math standpoint.

Well that is what I said originally, a pure mathematician will argue that you cannot mathematically prove they are congruent but anyone looking logically at the problem will argue that you can.

In the same way that you can get from the diagram that the lines are continuous and that certain lines are of the same length and their position to each other, I'm arguing that you know because of which lines are given and which aren't and the given rough positions of those lines that you have enough information to prove congruency.

Had somebody wanted to make the puzzle interesting, you would have said that the diagonals are the same length and left the horizontal lines blank (or drawn the "vertical" lines at 90 degrees to the diagonal - same thing).

That is true, but you have to remember who he was arguing with, his math teacher.  This means that the only acceptable answer that he can give will need to be proven mathamaticly and not by sight.