The Hinge Theorem

Suppose you and your friend, Mary, are walking through a haunted house at an amusement park, and
you come across a trap door on the ground that you have to go through. You go first by opening the door
so that the length of the opening is large enough for you to fit through it. Mary goes second, and has to
open the door a bit wider to make the length of the opening large enough for her to fit through.

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Do you notice that when the opening length is shorter, the angle at the hinge of the door is smaller than
when the opening length is larger? Do you also notice that the door length and the floor length of the
door remain the same in both cases, and it's just the opening length and the hinge angle that change?
This has great mathematical significance! So great that there is a theorem that explains this
phenomenon, and it is appropriately called the hinge theorem.

The hinge theorem states that if two triangles have two congruent sides (sides of equal length), then the
triangle with the larger angle between those sides will have a longer third side. This also gives way to the
converse of the hinge theorem, which states that if two triangles have two congruent sides, then the
triangle with the longer third side will have a larger angle opposite that third side.

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To illustrate this, think about the trap door again. When we open it, we create a triangle. One side is the
door, one side is the floor length of the door, and the third side is the opening length. The wider you
open the door, the greater the hinge angle and the greater the opening length.

When it's put like that, it seems like common sense! Let's take a look at using this theorem to compare
triangles and in an application!

Comparing Triangles Using the Hinge Theorem

Suppose we have two triangles as shown in the image.

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It is indicated that side AB is congruent to side DE and side BC is congruent to side EF. We are also given
that ∠ABC has measure 63 degrees and ∠DEF has measure 82 degrees. Based on this, what can we
conclude about how sides AC and DF compare? If you are thinking that the hinge theorem tells us that
DF is longer than AC, then you are correct! Because the two triangles have two congruent sides, and the
angle between those sides is larger in ΔDEF, the hinge theorem tells us that ΔDEF will have a longer third
side, so DF is longer than AC.

Now, consider another two triangles shown in the image.

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This time, we are given that the two triangles have two congruent sides, and that AC has length 7 inches
and DF has length 6 inches. We can use the converse of the hinge theorem to conclude that ∠ABC is
larger than ∠DEF, because ∠ABC is opposite the longer third side.