The Pythagorean theorem and the right triangle
A right triangle has one 90-degree angle, and its three sides have names relative to an acute angle θ: the hypotenuse faces the right angle and is always longest, the opposite side sits across from θ, and the adjacent side touches θ without being the hypotenuse.
The Pythagorean theorem states that a² + b² = c² for legs a, b and hypotenuse c. It is a statement about area, not multiplication: build a square on each side of the triangle and the two small square areas sum exactly to the large one. Constructions of that proof run from rearrangements of four identical triangles to ancient Chinese and Babylonian demonstrations; the 3-4-5 triangle appears in Egyptian surveying ropes thousands of years before Pythagoras is credited with the proof.
Its converse is equally useful: if a² + b² = c² holds for the longest side c, the triangle is right. That is how builders check square corners with a 3-4-5 tape — measure 3 feet along one wall, 4 along the other, and the diagonal must be exactly 5.
Special right triangles repay memorisation because they recur constantly: the 45-45-90 triangle has sides in ratio 1 : 1 : √2, and the 30-60-90 triangle has sides 1 : √3 : 2. One of them is hidden in every square and every equilateral triangle cut down its altitude, which is why unit-circle values like √2/2 and √3/2 appear so often.