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Priya was given this task to complete:
Use a sequence of rigid motions to take onto . Given that segment is congruent to segment , segment is congruent to segment , and segment is congruent to segment . For each step, explain how you know that one or more vertices will line up.
Help her finish the missing steps in her proof:
is the same length as , so they are congruent. Therefore, there is a rigid motion that takes to .
Apply this rigid motion to triangle . The image of will coincide with , and the image of will coincide with .
We cannot be sure that the image of , which we will call , coincides with yet. If it does, then our rigid motion takes to , proving that triangle is congruent to triangle . If it does not, then we continue as follows.
is congruent to the image of , because rigid motions preserve distance.
Therefore, is equidistant from and .
A similar argument shows that is equidistant from and .
is the of the segment connecting and , because the is determined by 2 points that are both equidistant from the endpoints of a segment.
Reflection across the of , takes to .
Therefore, after the reflection, all 3 pairs of vertices coincide, proving triangles and are congruent.
Now, help Priya by finishing a few-sentence summary of her proof. “To prove 2 triangles must be congruent if all 3 pairs of corresponding sides are congruent . . . .”
The goal of this discussion is to come to a consensus on the summary of Priya’s proof. It’s OK to begin summarizing before every student has their own complete summary so long as all students have done some work to make sense of the proof.
Invite students to share important ideas they noticed in the proof.
Point out that using perpendicular bisectors is a new reason why vertices have to coincide. Add this to the display of sentence frames for proofs. This display should be posted in the classroom for the remaining lessons within this unit. This is the final statement to add to the display. An example template is provided with the blackline master for this lesson.
Justifications:
Add the following theorem to the class reference chart, and ask students to add it to their reference charts:
Side-Side-Side Triangle Congruence Theorem:
In two triangles, if all three pairs of corresponding sides are congruent, then the triangles must be congruent. (Theorem)
, and , so
Quadrilateral is a parallelogram. By definition, that means that segment is parallel to segment , and segment is parallel to segment .
Prove that angle is congruent to angle .
If students struggle longer than is productive, direct them to their reference charts. What do they know about parallelograms? (Opposite sides are congruent.)
Select partners who used the same approach and whose work is at similar levels of clarity to work together in groups of 4.
Instruct students to read the other group’s proof and decide if they agree with it, and if it could be improved to convince a skeptic. Invite each partnership to say one thing they noticed and liked about the proof, and one thing a skeptic might wonder about the proof.
If needed, brainstorm some things skeptics might be wondering about, such as: