Triangle Classification

The basic elements of any triangle are its sides and angles. Triangles are classified
depending on relative sizes of their elements.

As regard their sides, triangles may be

 Scalene (all sides are different)

 Isosceles (two sides are equal)
 Equilateral (all three sides are equal)

And as regard their angles, triangles may be

 Acute (all angles are acute)

 Right (one angle is right)n
 Obtuse (one angle is obtuse)
 Equiangular (all angles are equal)
 A triangle is scalene if all of its three sides are different (in which case, the three
angles are also different). If two of its sides are equal, a triangle is called isosceles. A
triangle with all three equal sides is called equilateral. S. Schwartzman's The Words
of Mathematics explain the etymology (the origins) of the words. The first two are of
Greek (and related) origins; the word "equilateral" is of Latin origin:
 scalene (adjective): from the Indo-European root skel- "to cut."
Greek skalenos originally meant "stirred up, hoed up." When a piece of ground is
stirred up, the surface becomes "uneven," which was a later meaning of skalenos. A
scalene triangle is uneven in the sense that all three sides are of different lengths. The
scalene muscles on each side of a person's neck are named for their triangular
appearance. A scalene cone or cylinder is one whose axis is not perpendicular to its
base; opposite elements make "uneven" angles with the base.
 isosceles (adjective): from Greek isos "equal", of unknown prior origin,
and skelos "leg". The Indo-European root (s)kel- "curved, bent" is found
in scoliosis and colon, borrowed from Greek. In geometry, an isosceles triangle or
trapezoid has two equal legs. It may seem
strange that the root means "bent" even
though the sides of a triangle or trapezoid are
straight, but each leg is bent relative to the
adjoining legs.
 equilateral (adjective): from
Latin æquus "even, level," and latus,
stem later-, "side," both of uncertain origin.
Related borrowings from Latin
are bilateral and multilateral. In geometry,
equilateral triangle is one in which all sides are
equal in length.
 This is how the two approaches are distinguished with Venn diagrams:
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 As regard the angles, a triangle is equiangular if all three of its angles are equal. Very
early in the Elements (I.5 and I.6) Euclid showed that in an isosceles triangle the
base angles are equal and, conversely, the sides opposite equal angles are equal. From
here, for a triangle, the properties of being equilateral and equiangular are equivalent,
and the latter is seldom mentioned. (For a polygon with the number of sides greater
than 3 the equivalence no longer holds.)
 In Euclidean geometry, the sum of the angles in a triangle equals 180°. It follows that
a triangle may have at most one obtuse or even right angle. (This also follows from
the Exterior Angle Theorem.) If one of the angles in a triangle is obtuse, the triangle is
called obtuse. A triangle with one right angle is right. Otherwise, a triangle is acute;
for all of its angles are acute. (All the definitions are naturally exclusive. There is no
possible ambiguity.)
 The following diagram summarizes all possible triangle configurations. The types of
triangles: