Name:________________

Parallel Lines and Transversals Relationships

Two parallel lines extend forever without meeting, correct? And these lines are useful in all sorts of things. Look at the following pictures:

Bridge

Parking lot

Staircase

But are parallel lines the only lines that are important in these pictures? There are other lines in there too, right? And if you were, say, a parking lot line drawer, how would you make sure those lines really are parallel? It would be unfortunate for a giant SUV driver to get a ticket because his front fits in the parking space but his back end does not. We can use the answer to the first question to help us with the second question. Exercise 1: The lines that are crossing through the parallel lines (and are holding the parallel lines parallel) are called transversals. (a) Why do you think theyre called this? Please make a note card for transversal.

(b) Make a conjecture: Draw two lines that you think are parallel WITHOUT a ruler. Now draw a transversal between them. Using a protractor, how can you check to make sure the two lines you drew actually are parallel?

Exercise 2: Lets try it out. The following diagram shows two parallel lines cut by a transversal.

1 3 4

5 7 8

(a) Use the diagram to find the angle measures for the following: (i) (ii) (b) Which angles are equal to (c) Which angles are equal to (d) What is the relationship between and ? and all the angles that are equal to ? (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii)

(e) So what is the relationship between all the angles equal to

Exercise 3: Lets try it again with a few more different sets of parallel lines with a transversal to see if these relationships still work. Use a protractor to measure each of the 8 angles in each of the two diagrams.

1 2 3 4

2 5 6 7 8

3 4

5 7 8

(a) Diagram 1

(b) Diagram 2

(c) Do the same relationships still hold?

Exercise 4: So now we know that these relationships seem to work. How can we use them to our advantage? Suppose youre a parking lot line drawing supervisor. Youve just hired Camren to draw new parking lines in the SJS parking lot. Camren is a little impatient and hes listening to his ipod while he works. Here are the lines hes drawn. DeLacy-sensei says that you should probably fire Camren, but because Camren can be a little argumentative, you need to come up with a good, geometric argument as a basis for your decision that he is a terrible parking lot line drawer.

Use your protractor and the geometric relationships you discovered in the first 3 exercises to convince Camren that he deserves to be fired. Write your reasons for his firing below.

Exercise 5: Use what youve learned about parallel lines and transversals to draw two perfectly parallel lines on this piece of paper. You may use your ruler and your protractor.