complements

[simba]

Hi. I am having trouble with figuring out this kind of thing. If an angle has 4 times the measure of its complement, what would be the measure of the smaller angle?

 

[mmm4444bot]

Why are you stuck ?

Is it because you do not know the meaning of complementary angles ?

Is it because you cannot transcribe the English phrases into mathematical expressions ?

This exercise is answered by writing an equation and solving it.

I mean, it's difficult to assist people who say nothing more than "I'm having trouble" because I don't have any way of knowing what kind of trouble they're having until they tell me.

I can list all of the steps, for you. I don't know whether or not that's what you need.

I would start by assigning a symbol to represent the angle measure that you've been asked to find.

Your symbol serves as a mathematical expression for the smaller angle.

Multiply that symbol by 4, and you'll have an expression for the bigger angle, too.

FACT: All pairs of complementary angles add up to 90 degrees. (That's the definition of complementary angles.)

Hence, you can form an equation by adding your two expressions for these angle measures AND setting their sum equal to 90.

Then, you will have an equation to solve.

The solution to that equation is the answer to your exercise.

Feel free to ask specific questions about anything in my post.

Please show what you're able to do, so far, if you would like more help.

Cheers ~ Mark