Throughout the quarter, this problem has provoked much thought, paper
throwing, and hair pulling. The problem considers special triangles.
We were able to find the angles shown above with the use of properties
of triangles and lines. Since there are 180 degrees in a triangle and a
straight line, the above angle measurements were found.
The line segments were extended outside of the triangle, in the hopes of
finding the measure of angle Z. To our dismay, these extensions were of
no help.
After extending other lines and getting nowhere, we decided to try our luck
with those handy systems of equations. We found ourselves going around in
circles:
This did not look so bad. Four equations, four unknowns. No sweat. Ha!
We then tried to solve using methods of substitution:
