Thales' Theorem - Proof

Proof

We use the following facts: the sum of the angles in a triangle is equal to two right angles (180°) and the base angles of an isosceles triangle are equal.

Provided AC is a diameter, angle at B is constant right (90°).
Figure for the proof.

Since OA = OB = OC, OBA and OBC are isosceles triangles, and by the equality of the base angles of an isosceles triangle, OBC = OCB and BAO = ABO.

Let α = BAO and β = OBC. The three internal angles of the ABC triangle are α, α + β and β. Since the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles, we have

then

or simply

Read more about this topic:  Thales' Theorem

Famous quotes containing the word proof:

    “If any doubt has arisen as to me, my country [Virginia] will have my political creed in the form of a “Declaration &c.” which I was lately directed to draw. This will give decisive proof that my own sentiment concurred with the vote they instructed us to give.”
    —Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    “He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness. And if it be said, that continual success is a proof that a man wisely knows his powers,—it is only to be added, that, in that case, he knows them to be small.”
    —Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    “There are some persons in this world, who, unable to give better proof of being wise, take a strange delight in showing what they think they have sagaciously read in mankind by uncharitable suspicions of them.”
    —Herman Melville (1819–1891)