A Lesson They'll Never Forget

As I taught one of my Math classes about right triangles and the Pythagorean Theorem, I had a surprising number of students ask me about how to determine which side of the triangle was the hypotenuse. Thinking it a rather easy concept, I chose to draw a simple diagram to illustrate and reiterate that the hypotenuse of a triangle is the largest side of a right triangle and is located opposite the right angle.

I must have been having an off day because I looked out into the crowd and still saw some confused looks. In my heart I know that it probably isn’t the greatest teaching technique to simply repeat concepts louder and slower, but it is definitely tempting at times like these…

Instead, I chose to “think on my feet” about a way to say it differently. I turned the triangle so that it was resting on the hypotenuse and labeled the legs. I gave the triangle a stick figure body coming up from the legs and explained that the hypotenuse is the distance between the guy’s feet.

Just as I thought we could finally move on to bigger and better concepts, one student in the back of the room raises his hand.

“What does the right angle symbol represent?”

Without missing a beat, another student answers.

“His loincloth.”

Aaaaaaand, we’re done.

I can say with absolute certainty that these students will not soon forget how to identify a hypotenuse.