Real-World Applications & Project Ideas - Similarity, Right Triangles, and Trigonometry

Real-World Applications and Project Ideas

Once students have mastered the skill in this toolkit, they can try out these relevant activities.

These are also great ideas for students who can do the math work above but struggle with explaining it.

Lastly, it is effective to have students solidify their understanding by doing hands-on and real-world applications.

Visit the Resource Bank to learn more.

• Similar triangles explain how zoom works on a phone or camera, and how a viewfinder can be used in a photograph.
• Cartographers use similar triangles to measure the width of a river.
• Home builders use similar triangles to build A-frame houses.
• Similar triangles are used to measure tall items (we used buildings and a lamp post, but it could also be flag poles, distance to a window on the 12th floor of a building, or any other very large object).
• Forest services use similar triangles to cut down trees.

Here is a helpful link that explains and demonstrates the above concepts.

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