Dropping the altitude onto the hypotenuse makes two smaller triangles, both the same shape as the original. Matching up their sides is where the geometric mean comes from.
Averaging the two pieces instead of multiplying them. The geometric mean is a square root of a product, and the ordinary average gives a different, wrong number every time the pieces differ.
Also called geometric mean, altitude to the hypotenuse or mean proportional.
Questions about these worksheets
Yes. Every similar right triangles sheet is free to print and free to download as a PDF. There is no account to make, no email to hand over and no limit on how many you take.
Yes. The answer key prints on a second page, and you can choose whether it shows each question beside its answer or just the answers in a list.
Yes. Print straight from the page, or download the PDF and print that. The sheet is laid out for paper rather than squeezed off a screen, so there is room to work under each question, and the answer key comes out on its own page.
Geometry is usually taken around 9th or 10th grade, though schools vary and plenty of students meet it earlier or later. Pick the difficulty rather than the grade: the easy level suits a first lesson on it, the hard level suits review before a test.
Yes, as many as you like. The questions are built fresh each time rather than picked from a fixed set of files, so pressing Generate gives a new sheet. That is what you want for a second class, a retake, or two students sitting next to each other.
That is the closest comparison, and Kuta Software is good software. It is also paid software you install on a computer. These worksheets run in a browser tab for free, with no account and nothing to install. Like Kuta, the similar right triangles questions are generated when you ask for them rather than pulled from a fixed set of files, so two classes never get the same sheet, and the answer key comes with it.
Yes. There are three levels, and you can tick more than one for a sheet that mixes them, in which case the questions come out easiest first. The harder levels are not just larger numbers: they ask for something the easy ones do not.
Averaging the two pieces instead of multiplying them. The geometric mean is a square root of a product, and the ordinary average gives a different, wrong number every time the pieces differ.