Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ Drawing similar right triangles

[Mikerada6]

I am trying to recreate the following picture

triangle.gif (1.28 KiB) Viewed 15632 times

I have been able to use the TikZ package to create something similar. However with how powerful the package is I am having trouble sorting through the documentation to find out how to do simple things. The hardest part i am finding is getting the label to show the length of each segment, especially when it stretches over several "parts", also an easy way to show the right angle symbol.

Code: Select all

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) node[anchor=north east]{A}-- (1,3)node[anchor=south]{B} -- (10,0)node[anchor=north]{C}-- (0,0);
\draw (1,3)--(1,0)node[anchor=north]{D};
\end{tikzpicture}

Edit by localghost: Preferably no external links (see Board Rules). Attachments go onto the forum server where possible.

[Frits]

Is it necessarily that you use TikZ? If not, Here is an alternative to create images for LaTeX purposes, which I prefer over TikZ.

[shadgrind]

You can use the tkz-2d package with TikZ to draw the right angles. Here's an example, using the coordinates in your code snippet:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz,tkz-2d}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
 \coordinate[label=below left:$A$] (A) at (0,0);
 \coordinate[label=below right:$B$] (B) at (10,0);
 \coordinate[label=above:$C$] (C) at (1,3);
 \coordinate[label=below:$D$] (D) at (1,0);
 \draw (A) -- (C) -- (B) -- cycle;
 \draw (C) -- (D) node[right,midway] {$m$};
 \draw[latex-latex,shift={(0,-0.6)}] (1,0) -- (10,0) node[below,midway] {$a$ units};
 \draw[latex-latex,shift={(0,-1.2)}] (0,0) -- (10,0) node[below,midway] {$b$ units};
 \tkzRightAngle (A/C/B, C/D/B);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Here's a pic of what it looks like:

[Mikerada6]

thank you very much. that simple example will help me create many of the figures I need to create my geometry lesson plans. Thank you again.

[Mikerada6]

I am having trouble installing the TKZ-2d package. I am running Windows and TexNicCenter

The documentation is confusing and I am not aware what "sudo texhash" means on a windows machine. To my knowledge that is a Linux command

[frabjous]

It's not Linux specific, but sudo is Unix-specific and texhash TeXlive specific. The equivalent for MikTeX would be refreshing the file name database(FNDB) in the MikTeX package manager.

[localghost]

I am having trouble installing the TKZ-2d package. I am running Windows and TexNicCenter […]

The »tkz-2d« package is superseded by the tkz-euclide package. So you should find this with the package manager. And the syntax for the right angle symbol has slightly changed. Unfortunately there's only a French version of the manual at the moment.


Thorsten

[Montag]

It's not Linux specific, but sudo is Unix-specific and texhash TeXlive specific. The equivalent for MikTeX would be refreshing the file name database(FNDB) in the MikTeX package manager.

And if you also like to use the command line tool for maintaining MikTeX, take a look here.

[shadgrind]

If you want to use tkz-euclide instead of tkz-2d, you need TikZ 2.10 installed. Also, make sure you remove the tkz-2d package then update the filename database, or you may encounter problems with conflicting tkz-base.sty files. Using tkz-euclide, the code looks like this:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tkz-euclide}
\usetkzobj{all}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
 \coordinate[label=below left:$A$] (A) at (0,0);
 \coordinate[label=below right:$B$] (B) at (10,0);
 \coordinate[label=above:$C$] (C) at (1,3);
 \coordinate[label=below:$D$] (D) at (1,0);
 \draw (A) -- (C) -- (B) -- cycle;
 \draw (C) -- (D) node[right,midway] {$m$};
 \draw[latex-latex,shift={(0,-0.6)}] (1,0) -- (10,0) node[below,midway] {$a$ units};
 \draw[latex-latex,shift={(0,-1.2)}] (0,0) -- (10,0) node[below,midway] {$b$ units};
 \tkzMarkRightAngle (A,C,B);
 \tkzMarkRightAngle (C,D,B);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Note that tkz-euclide automatically loads tikz.