Right angles measure 90º.
A right angle is an angle that measures ninety sexagesimal degrees (90º) . This angle is formed by two rays that are perpendicular to each other and that originate at the vertex they share.
Before moving forward, it is important to discover the etymological origin of the words that make up the concept:
- Angle is a word that derives from the Greek ankulos , which can be translated as “bent” or “twisted.” That word, in turn, gave shape to the Latin angulus .
- Straight , on the other hand, comes from the Latin adjective rectus , which means “straight ” and derives from the verb regere (translatable as “to straighten”).
What is a right angle
Angle is a concept that has several uses. In this case we are interested in staying with its meaning as the geometric figure that is formed from two rays that share a vertex.
According to their characteristics, we can distinguish between different types of angles. One of them is the right angle , 90º.
In addition to everything stated above, we cannot overlook other characteristics of this type of angle that are also very significant:
- It is considered to be the easiest angle to identify among all those that exist.
- It's always the same.
We can find right angles in various plane figures of geometry. If we focus our attention on a square (which has four equal and parallel sides), we will notice that its four interior angles are right angles. This means that each angle of a square measures 90º and that the sum of all its angles totals 360º. Right triangles , for their part, have one right angle and two acute angles (measuring less than 90º and more than 0º).
It is possible to find right angles in different geometric figures.
Different combinations
Right angles can be combined to form other types of angles. Two right angles, in this framework, give rise to a plane angle (also called a straight angle ), which measures 180º. Four right angles, on the other hand, allow us to obtain a perigonal or complete angle : an angle of 360º.
It is worth mentioning that right angles are part of the set of convex angles or salient angles , which encompasses all those angles that measure more than 0º but less than 180º. This implies that acute angles and obtuse angles are also convex angles.
«Right Angle» Magazine
It is also important to know that “Right Angle” is the title of a well-known scientific journal from the Complutense University of Madrid . It is a publication of studies on the city, which has a biannual periodicity with a marked thematic air and is usually published in the months of May and December.
Basically it is made up of articles where the city as such is analyzed from different perspectives. That is, from an architectural, anthropological, artistic, literary, philosophical, sociological, literary point of view, in terms of human geography... In this way, we try to show it as a space full of plurality, richness, intercommunicative and also multicultural.