Question

Can you show an example of a paragraph proof?

Answer 1

A paragraph proof is just writing out your reasoning in proper sentences instead of mathematical symbols. Imagine a picture of a triangle with one angle marked 90 degrees, and the two shorter sides marked 3cm and 4 cm. A paragraph proof that the longer side is 5cm might read:

"Consider the picture of a triangle. One of the angles is 90 degrees. This is therefore a right-angled triangle. This triangle is therefore subject to Pythagoras' Theorem which states that in a right-angled triangle the square of the longest side is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. The other two sides are labelled 3 and 4 respectively. Their squares are 9 and 16. The sum of these is 25 and this is equal to the square of the length of the longest side. The square root of 25 is 5 and therefore the length of the other (longest) side is 5."

Answer 2

Oh...ok. Thank you. :)