Maths help - geometric proving - altitudes etc.

Question

So i have this question that says i have to draw 3 altitudes in a triangle and determine the lengths of all sides etc. I have done this fine, no problems.

But then it says that i have to measure the lengths of the intercepts to the vertices and make a statement about the relationship between the lengths.

Does anyone know what i SHOULD be getting? im not seeing much of a pattern. im a bit stuck. please could you give me some information about altitudes that may help? thanks in advance.

Answer 1

There is a bunch of similarity involved. There are two websites that do a decent job of showing it better than I can because of the lack of ability to draw here. Both sites provide the proofs too, but they are a bit theoretical...I bet you'll be fine though.

See part 12 of this one (I think that is what you are looking for):

http://www.cut-the-knot.org/triangle/alt...

This website has lovely pictures and probably will give you a hint, but it is very theoretical:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Altitude.ht...

Hope it helps some!